Kenneth Colley
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1937-12-07 (87 years old)
Place of Birth
Manchester, England, UK
Kenneth Colley
Biography
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.
Acting
(2024)
Dan Hawk Psychic Detective
as Thaddeus Moncrief
(2013)
Scar Tissue
as Weaver
(2012)
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
as Admiral Piett (voice)
(2007)
Greetings
as Ken
(2005)
Like Father Like Son
as Rawsthorne
(1999)
Hold Back the Night
as Uncle Bob
(1998)
Shadow Run
as Larcombe
(1996)
Brassed Off
as Greasley
(1996)
Robert Rylands' Last Journey
as Archdale
(1995)
Solomon & Sheba
as Nathan
(1993)
Unnatural Causes
as Inspector Gerry Reckless
(1992)
La Vie de Bohème
as Street Sweeper
(1992)
The Secret Life of Arnold Bax
as John Ireland
(1991)
Prisoner of Honor
as Capt. Dreyfus
(1990)
I Hired a Contract Killer
as The Killer
(1990)
The Plot to Kill Hitler
as Wilhelm Keitel
(1990)
The Last Island
as Nick
(1990)
Kremlin Farewell
as Sergej
(1989)
The Rainbow
as Mr. Brunt
(1989)
A Master of the Marionettes
as Inspector Tennyson
(1988)
A Summer Story
as Jim
(1987)
Casanova
as Le Duc
(1986)
The Whistle Blower
as Bill Pickett
(1984)
Return to Waterloo
as The Traveller
(1983)
Return of the Jedi
as Admiral Piett
(1983)
The Scarlet and the Black
as Capt. Hirsch
(1982)
Firefox
as Colonel Kontarsky
(1982)
Giro City
as Martin
(1982)
I Remember Nelson
as Vice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson
(1980)
The Empire Strikes Back
as Admiral Piett
(1979)
Life of Brian
as Jesus
(1979)
Measure for Measure
as Duke Vincentio
(1979)
The Danedyke Mystery
as The Major
(1978)
Les Misérables
as Police Prefect
(1978)
One Bummer News Day
as Frank Benyon
(1977)
Jabberwocky
as 1st Fanatic
(1977)
Come the Revolution
as Bruce Tetley
(1977)
The Testing of Eric Olthwaite
as Robber
(1975)
Lisztomania
as Frederic Chopin
(1975)
Flame
as Tony Devlin
(1974)
Juggernaut
as Detective Brown
(1974)
Mahler
as Krenek
(1973)
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
as Boldt
(1972)
The Triple Echo
as Provo Corporal
(1971)
The Devils
as Legrand
(1971)
The Boy Friend
as King in fantasy sequence (uncredited)
(1971)
The Music Lovers
as Modeste Tchaikovsky
(1970)
Performance
as Tony Farrell (as Ken Colley)
(1970)
(1968)
The Blood Beast Terror
as James
(1968)
Who Pays?
as Corbett
(1967)
How I Won the War
as 2nd Replacement
(1967)
The Jokers
as De Winter
(1965)
Three Clear Sundays
as Nick
(1963)
Seventy Deadly Pills
as Covent Garden porter
Crew
(2007)
Greetings
Director, Writer, Producer