1937-12-07 Manchester, England, UK
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.
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Scar Tissue | Weaver | 2013-09-12 |
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LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out | Admiral Piett (voice) | 2012-09-26 |
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Greetings | Ken | 2007-10-23 |
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Like Father Like Son | Rawsthorne | 2005-01-24 |
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Hold Back the Night | Uncle Bob | 1999-06-10 |
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Shadow Run | Larcombe | 1998-01-01 |
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El último viaje de Robert Rylands | Archdale | 1996-10-18 |
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Brassed Off | Greasley | 1996-11-01 |
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Solomon & Sheba | Nathan | 1995-02-26 |
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Unnatural Causes | Inspector Gerry Reckless | 1993-01-02 |
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La Vie de Bohème | Street Sweeper | 1992-02-27 |
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The Secret Life of Arnold Bax | John Ireland | 1992-11-22 |
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Prisoner of Honor | Capt. Dreyfus | 1991-11-02 |
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I Hired a Contract Killer | The Killer | 1990-10-12 |
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Kremlin Farewell | Sergej | 1990-04-01 |
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The Plot to Kill Hitler | Wilhelm Keitel | 1990-01-30 |
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The Last Island | Nick | 1990-11-16 |
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The Rainbow | Mr. Brunt | 1989-05-05 |
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A Master of the Marionettes | Inspector Tennyson | 1989-04-18 |
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A Summer Story | Jim | 1988-08-11 |
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Casanova | Le Duc | 1987-03-01 |
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The Whistle Blower | Bill Pickett | 1986-11-21 |
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Return to Waterloo | The Traveller | 1984-11-01 |
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The Scarlet and the Black | Capt. Hirsch | 1983-02-02 |
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Return of the Jedi | Admiral Piett | 1983-05-25 |
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I Remember Nelson | Vice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson | 1982-04-14 |
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Giro City | Martin | 1982-11-01 |
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Firefox | Colonel Kontarsky | 1982-06-18 |
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The Empire Strikes Back | Admiral Piett | 1980-05-20 |
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Life of Brian | Jesus | 1979-08-17 |
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Measure for Measure | Duke Vincentio | 1979-02-18 |
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The Danedyke Mystery | The Major | 1979-06-03 |
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One Bummer News Day | Frank Benyon | 1978-12-12 |
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Les Misérables | Police Prefect | 1978-12-27 |
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Come the Revolution | Bruce Tetley | 1977-10-25 |
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The Testing of Eric Olthwaite | Robber | 1977-09-22 |
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Jabberwocky | 1st Fanatic | 1977-03-28 |
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Three Days in Szczecin | Edmund Bałuka | 1976-09-21 |
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Flame | Tony Devlin | 1975-02-13 |
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Lisztomania | Frederic Chopin | 1975-10-10 |
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Juggernaut | Detective Brown | 1974-09-25 |
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Mahler | Krenek | 1974-04-04 |
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Hitler: The Last Ten Days | Boldt | 1973-04-19 |
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The Triple Echo | Provo Corporal | 1972-11-16 |
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The Music Lovers | Modeste Tchaikovsky | 1971-02-12 |
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The Devils | Legrand | 1971-07-16 |
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The Boy Friend | King in fantasy sequence (uncredited) | 1971-12-16 |
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Dance of the Seven Veils | 1970-02-15 | |
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Performance | Tony Farrell | 1970-08-03 |
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Who Pays? | Corbett | 1968-01-19 |
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The Blood Beast Terror | James | 1968-02-01 |
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How I Won the War | 2nd Replacement | 1967-10-18 |
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The Jokers | De Winter | 1967-05-15 |
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Three Clear Sundays | Nick | 1965-04-07 |
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Seventy Deadly Pills | Covent Garden porter | 1963-01-01 |
