
Kenneth Colley
Known for department: Acting
Birthday: 1937-12-07 – 2025-06-30
Place of birth: Manchester, England, UK
Biography
Kenneth Colley (7 December 1937 — 30 June 2025) was 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 Life of Brian (1979), having also appeared in the earlier 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 (also 1979). Colley also held an important role in the Clint Eastwood film Firefox, as a Soviet Colonel tasked with the protection of the Firefox and its secrets. Colley portrayed 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 BBC television drama Pennies from Heaven (1978). He has also recently starred in BBC's HolbyBlue as a drunk and violent father, grandfather and father-in-law. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kenneth Colley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for

Life of Brian
1979Jesus
The Empire Strikes Back
1980Admiral Piett
Firefox
1982Colonel Kontarsky
I Hired a Contract Killer
1990The Killer
Brassed Off
1996Greasley
The Scarlet and the Black
1983Capt. Hirsch
Les Misérables
1978Police Prefect
A Master of the Marionettes
1989Inspector Tennyson
The Blood Beast Terror
1968James
The Jokers
1967De Winter
Solomon & Sheba
1995Nathan
Return to Waterloo
1984The TravellerHold Back the Night
1999Uncle Bob
Kremlin Farewell
1990Sergej
Lisztomania
1975Frederic Chopin
The Music Lovers
1971Modeste Tchaikovsky
Robert Rylands' Last Journey
1996Archdale
Unnatural Causes
1993Inspector Gerry Reckless
The Rainbow
1989Mr. Brunt