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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Brassed Off | Greasley | 1996-11-01 |
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El último viaje de Robert Rylands | Archdale | 1996-10-18 |
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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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The Last Island | Nick | 1990-11-16 |
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The Plot to Kill Hitler | Wilhelm Keitel | 1990-01-30 |
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Kremlin Farewell | Sergej | 1990-04-01 |
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I Hired a Contract Killer | The Killer | 1990-10-12 |
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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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Firefox | Colonel Kontarsky | 1982-06-18 |
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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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The Empire Strikes Back | Admiral Piett | 1980-05-20 |
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The Danedyke Mystery | The Major | 1979-06-03 |
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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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One Bummer News Day | Frank Benyon | 1978-12-12 |
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Les Misérables | Police Prefect | 1978-12-27 |
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The Testing of Eric Olthwaite | Robber | 1977-09-22 |
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Come the Revolution | Bruce Tetley | 1977-10-25 |
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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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The Chester Mystery Plays | 1976-04-18 | |
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Flame | Tony Devlin | 1975-02-13 |
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Lisztomania | Frederic Chopin | 1975-10-10 |
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Mahler | Krenek | 1974-04-04 |
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Juggernaut | Detective Brown | 1974-09-25 |
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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 Boy Friend | King in fantasy sequence (uncredited) | 1971-12-16 |
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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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Dance of the Seven Veils | 1970-02-15 | |
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Performance. | Tony Farrell | 1970-08-03 |
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The Blood Beast Terror | James | 1968-02-01 |
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Cause of Death | Dr. Emil Justin | 1968-11-11 |
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Who Pays? | Corbett | 1968-01-19 |
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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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Macbeth | Macbeth's servant | 1966-01-01 |
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Three Clear Sundays | Nick | 1965-04-07 |
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Seventy Deadly Pills | Covent Garden porter | 1963-01-01 |
