Ken Colley, who has died aged 87, was a familiar British character player launched into the fan-convention stratosphere via his role as Admiral Piett, commander of Darth Vader’s Executor craft in the Star Wars sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983); ever-versatile, he counts among the few performers to have appeared on screen as both Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler.
Such extremes were however light years removed from the daily bread-and-butter of Colley the jobbing actor. After an uncredited screen debut as a corpse in the BBC’s A for Andromeda (1961), he settled into steady TV employment, appearing on The Avengers in 1963 and as a steelworker in one 1964 episode of Coronation Street; he played two roles on Emergency-Ward 10 (1957-67) and three on Z Cars (1962-78).
Colley made his film debut as a porter in the Children’s Film Foundation title Seventy Deadly Pills (1964), followed by supporting roles in more prominent titles: squaddies in How I Won the War (1967) and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), underworld fixer Tony Farrell in Performance (1970). By then, his sad-eyed, lugubrious mien was being noticed by creatives drawn to the cultish and marginal.
Colley became a favourite of Ken Russell, who cast him as Hitler in his scandal-inducing TV film Dance of the Seven Veils (1970). (It was the second time Colley had played the dictator, after “These Men Are Dangerous”, a 1969 episode of the BBC’s Thirty-Minute Theatre.) He was Tchaikovsky’s younger brother in The Music Lovers and Legrand in The Devils (both 1971); later he appeared as Krenek in Mahler (1974) and Chopin in Lisztomania (1975).
He also bonded with the Pythons, playing “1st Fanatic” in Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky and Michael Palin’s bungling bank robber accomplice in “The Testing of Eric Olthwaite”, the second episode of Ripping Yarns (both 1977). With reported first choice George Lazenby unavailable, Colley was recruited to play Jesus in Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979): “There was as much fun between takes as on takes,” the actor recalled.
The significance of his role as Lord Vader’s pilot snuck up on him: “I was out shopping in Notting Hill Gate with my wife Mary, and we walked past an old-fashioned Odeon… The queues were four-deep around the block and I said ‘Look, my Star Wars film is on. We ought to go and see it.’ There were two seats left on the front row and when the film began, with those words disappearing into infinity, you could have heard a human hair drop. I looked around at the people in the audience and I said to Mary ‘this is wonderful!’”
Born Kenneth Colley in Manchester on December 7, 1937, he began acting while working as a gopher in rep theatre (“They threw you on stage in small parts so they didn't have to pay an actor”). Debuting in Leicester in 1961, he later appeared alongside John Hurt and Rodney Bewes in the Garrick’s recut of David Helliwell’s Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs in 1966, and opposite Albert Finney in the Royal Court premiere of David Storey’s Cromwell in 1973.
His Star Wars adventures unlocked more prominent parts, often in international miniseries or TV movies: the naval hero of ITV’s BAFTA-winning I Remember Nelson (1982), for which he strapped his right arm behind his back; Eichmann in the Emmy-winning Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story (1985); Ben Gunn (opposite Brian Blessed’s Long John Silver) in Return to Treasure Island (1986).
Russell remained loyal, casting Colley as Mr. Brunt in The Rainbow (1989), Alfred Dreyfus in Prisoner of Honor (1991) and the composer John Ireland in The Secret Life of Arnold Bax (1992). Colley now had overseas admirers – he was the titular hitman in droll Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki’s I Hired A Contract Killer (1990) – though typically he saw the decade out with episodes of Peak Practice (in 1997) and The Bill (between 1995-99).
After revoicing Admiral Piett for the Lego Star Wars animation The Empire Strikes Out (2012), he played Estragon in the Cockpit Theatre’s 2014 revival of Waiting for Godot and Mob boss Vicente Changretta in 2016’s third series of Peaky Blinders. He briefly turned to directing, shooting the Ouija-board horror Greetings (2007) in his own Hythe home; his final role was in the Kent-shot indie thriller Dan Hawk Psychic Detective (2024).
There was, he insisted, no formula for success: “You only realise what you’ve got when it’s put together. Some of the best scripts you’ve ever read come out like dreck and you can’t understand why, while some scripts you had no respect for become wonderful movies… You cannot predict what will be a hit, otherwise we’d all be millionaires.”
He is survived by his wife Mary Dunne, who he married in 1962.
Ken Colley, born December 7, 1937, died June 30, 2025.
