Kenneth Colley

Birthday: 1937-12-07
Birthplace: Manchester, England, UK
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

Kenneth Colley (born 7 December 1937) is an English 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 (very briefly indeed) 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.

He currently lives at Hythe in Kent.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Kenneth Colley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Credits

Year Title Character
2024-01-21 Dan Hawk Psychic Detective Thaddeus Moncrief
2013-09-12 Scar Tissue Weaver
2012-09-24 LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out Admiral Piett (voice)
2007-10-23 Greetings Ken
2005-01-24 Like Father Like Son Rawsthorne
1999-06-10 Hold Back the Night Uncle Bob
1998-01-01 Shadow Run Larcombe
1996-11-01 Brassed Off Greasley
1996-10-18 Robert Rylands' Last Journey Archdale
1995-02-26 Solomon & Sheba Nathan
1993-01-02 Unnatural Causes Inspector Gerry Reckless
1992-11-22 The Secret Life of Arnold Bax John Ireland
1992-02-27 La Vie de Bohème Street Sweeper
1991-11-02 Prisoner of Honor Capt. Dreyfus
1990-11-16 The Last Island Nick
1990-10-12 I Hired a Contract Killer The Killer
1990-04-01 Kremlin Farewell Sergej
1990-01-30 The Plot to Kill Hitler Wilhelm Keitel
1989-05-05 The Rainbow Mr. Brunt
1989-04-18 A Master of the Marionettes Inspector Tennyson
1988-08-11 A Summer Story Jim
1987-03-01 Casanova Le Duc
1986-11-21 The Whistle Blower Bill Pickett
1985-04-07 Wallenberg: A Hero's Story Adolph Eichmann
1984-11-01 Return to Waterloo The Traveller
1983-05-25 Return of the Jedi Admiral Piett
1983-02-02 The Scarlet and the Black Capt. Hirsch
1982-11-01 Giro City Martin
1982-06-18 Firefox Colonel Kontarsky
1982-04-14 I Remember Nelson Vice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson
1980-05-20 The Empire Strikes Back Admiral Piett
1979-08-17 Life of Brian Jesus
1979-06-03 The Danedyke Mystery The Major
1979-02-18 Measure for Measure Duke Vincentio
1978-12-27 Les Misérables Police Prefect
1978-12-12 One Bummer News Day Frank Benyon
1977-10-25 Come the Revolution Bruce Tetley
1977-09-22 The Testing of Eric Olthwaite Robber
1977-03-28 Jabberwocky 1st Fanatic
1975-10-10 Lisztomania Frederic Chopin
1975-02-13 Flame Tony Devlin
1974-09-25 Juggernaut Detective Brown
1974-04-04 Mahler Krenek
1973-04-19 Hitler: The Last Ten Days Boldt
1972-11-16 The Triple Echo Provo Corporal
1971-12-16 The Boy Friend King in fantasy sequence (uncredited)
1971-07-16 The Devils Legrand
1971-02-12 The Music Lovers Modeste Tchaikovsky
1970-08-03 Performance Tony Farrell (as Ken Colley)
1970-02-15 Dance of the Seven Veils
1968-02-01 The Blood Beast Terror James
1968-01-19 Who Pays? Corbett
1967-10-18 How I Won the War 2nd Replacement
1967-05-15 The Jokers De Winter
1965-04-07 Three Clear Sundays Nick
1963-01-01 Seventy Deadly Pills Covent Garden porter