Kenneth Colley

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Kenneth Colley (born 7 December 1937) is a British actor. A long-time character actor, he came to wider prominence through his role as Admiral Piett in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

Colley was born in Manchester. He played Jesus in The Life of Brian, having also appeared in the earlier Monty Python-related production Ripping Yarns episode "The Testing of Eric Olthwaite" alongside Michael Palin. As a Shakespearean actor he played the Duke of Vienna in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Measure for Measure in 1979.

Colley also held an important role in the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox, where he played a Soviet Colonel tasked with the protection of the Firefox and its secrets.

Colley went on to play SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel in the World War II drama War and Remembrance. His character was charged with hiding the evidence of the Holocaust, and putting dead victims through "Economic Processing".

According to comments Terry Gilliam (who directed him in Jabberwocky and co-starred with him in Life of Brian) made in the DVD audio commentaries for both films, Colley is a terrible stutterer in real life. When he had a role in a film, however, he could recite the lines perfectly. Stuttering is a character trait, however, in his role as the "Accordion Man" in the 1978 BBC television drama, Pennies from Heaven. He has also recently starred in BBC's HolbyBlue as a drunk and violent father, grandfather and father-in-law.

Colley currently resides in Hythe, Kent.

Filmography

• The Music Lovers (1970) Modeste Tchaikovsky
• Fall of Eagles (1974) Father Gapon
• Juggernaut (1974) Detective Brown
• Jabberwocky (1977)
• The Life of Brian (1979) ... Jesus Christ
• The Empire Strikes Back (1980) ... Admiral Piett
• Firefox (1982)
• Return of the Jedi (1983) ... Admiral Piett
• Return to Waterloo (1985) 'The Traveller'
• The Rainbow (1989)
• I Hired a Contract Killer (1990)
• Brassed Off (1996)

Ken Colley also played Admiral Lord Nelson in the mini series 'I Remember Nelson' in the early eighties.

External links

• Kenneth Colley at the Internet Movie Database

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