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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
December 7, 1937
Died
June 30, 2025
Place of Birth
Manchester, England, UK
Also Known As
- Kenneth Cooley
- Ken Colley
Kenneth Colley
0.7 Popularity
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
Credits
The Institute
as Gate Guard #5
2025
7.7
Peaky Blinders
as Vicente Changretta
2013
8.5
Scar Tissue
as Weaver
2013
5.2
LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
as Admiral Piett (voice)
2012
6.4
Vera
as Ronald Devreux
2011
7.4
The Queen
2009
7.0
Misfits
as Old Rudy
2009
7.6
Greetings
as Ken
2007
1.0
Like Father Like Son
as Rawsthorne
2005
6.2
New Tricks
2004
7.4
The Royal
as Bernard Hussey
2003
7.6
Foyle's War
as Brian Jones
2002
7.9
Relic Hunter
as Professor Lamenza
1999
6.7
🎬
Hold Back the Night
as Uncle Bob
1999
4.7
Always and Everyone
as Joseph
1999
9.0
The Last Train
1999
7.2
The Mrs Bradley Mysteries
as Archie Burlington
1998
6.9
Shadow Run
as Larcombe
1998
3.8
Midsomer Murders
as Lloyd Kirby
1997
7.5
Brassed Off
as Greasley
1996
7.0
Robert Rylands' Last Journey
as Archdale
1996
6.1
Solomon & Sheba
as Nathan
1995
6.2
Wycliffe
as Sam Peploe
1994
6.0
Peak Practice
as Stan Jordan
1993
6.1
Unnatural Causes
as Inspector Gerry Reckless
1993
6.5
The Secret Life of Arnold Bax
as John Ireland
1992
6.0
Between the Lines
as Chief Supt. Tattersall
1992
5.2
Heartbeat
as Clive Harris
1992
7.1
La Vie de Bohème
as Street Sweeper
1992
7.5
Prisoner of Honor
as Capt. Dreyfus
1991
6.2
The Last Island
as Nick
1990
5.7
I Hired a Contract Killer
as The Killer
1990
6.8
Kremlin Farewell
as Sergej
1990
0.0
The Plot to Kill Hitler
as Wilhelm Keitel
1990
6.0
The Rainbow
as Mr. Brunt
1989
5.6
A Master of the Marionettes
as Inspector Tennyson
1989
0.0
Agatha Christie's Poirot
as Mathew Davenheim
1989
8.2
A Summer Story
as Jim
1988
6.0
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers
as Chief Inspector Heat
1988
0.0
Casanova
as Le Duc
1987
3.9
Inspector Morse
as DCI Patrick Dawson
1987
7.8
The Whistle Blower
as Bill Pickett
1986
5.8
Casualty
as Paddy
1986
6.1
Casualty
as Clifford Watkins
1986
6.1
Casualty
as Arthur Cobb
1986
6.1
John Silver's Return to Treasure Island
as Ben Gunn
1986
8.3
Mussolini: The Untold Story
as King Vittorio Emmanuele
1985
4.8
Wallenberg: A Hero's Story
as Adolf Eichmann
1985
6.0
Return to Waterloo
as The Traveller
1984
6.7
Return of the Jedi
as Admiral Piett
1983
7.9
The Scarlet and the Black
as Capt. Hirsch
1983
7.0
Giro City
as Martin
1982
5.0
Firefox
as Colonel Kontarsky
1982
6.0
I Remember Nelson
as Vice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson
1982
0.0
🎬
I Remember Nelson
as ice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson
1982
3.3
The Kenny Everett Television Show
as Self
1982
7.0
Peter and Paul
as Theodotus
1981
7.0
The Empire Strikes Back
as Admiral Piett
1980
8.4
Minder
as Ron
1979
6.8
Life of Brian
as Jesus
1979
7.8
The Danedyke Mystery
as The Major
1979
0.0
Measure for Measure
as Duke Vincentio
1979
5.2
Les Misérables
as Police Prefect
1978
7.1
One Bummer News Day
as Frank Benyon
1978
0.0
Pennies from Heaven
as The Accordion Man
1978
7.7
Come the Revolution
as Bruce Tetley
1977
0.0
The Testing of Eric Olthwaite
as Robber
1977
7.0
Target
as Jessal
1977
6.3
Jabberwocky
as 1st Fanatic
1977
6.0
Dickens of London
as Robert Seymour
1976
6.5
🎬
Three Days in Szczecin
as Edmund Bałuka
1976
0.0
Ripping Yarns
as Robber
1976
7.5
Lisztomania
as Frederic Chopin
1975
5.9
Flame
as Tony Devlin
1975
7.1
The Love School
as Edward Burne-Jones
1975
0.0
The Sweeney
as Noah Riley
1975
7.8
Churchill's People
as Ancient Beau
1974
1.0
Juggernaut
as Detective Brown
1974
6.2
Mahler
as Krenek
1974
6.6
Fall of Eagles
as Father Gapon
1974
6.9
🎬
Black and Blue
as Schultz
1973
6.0
Hitler: The Last Ten Days
as Boldt
1973
6.1
The Triple Echo
as Provo Corporal
1972
5.6
Crown Court
as Stanley Meredith
1972
5.4
The Protectors
as Devlin
1972
5.8
The Boy Friend
as King in fantasy sequence (uncredited)
1971
6.5
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
as Farrish
1971
7.4
The Devils
as Legrand
1971
7.5
The Music Lovers
as Modeste Tchaikovsky
1971
6.5
Play for Today
as Bruce Tetley
1970
6.3
Play for Today
as Frank Benyon
1970
6.3
Performance
as Tony Farrell
1970
6.7
Dance of the Seven Veils
1970
8.0
Dear Mother... ...Love Albert
1969
5.5
Judge Dee
1969
5.0
The Expert
as Foreman
1968
10.0
The Expert
as Munt
1968
10.0
The Blood Beast Terror
as James
1968
5.5
🎬
Who Pays?
as Corbett
1968
0.0
How I Won the War
as 2nd Replacement
1967
5.5
Omnibus
as Hitler
1967
7.2
The Jokers
as De Winter
1967
6.0
The Informer
as Slater
1966
0.0
BBC Play of the Month
as Yolinichev
1965
5.0
Thirty-Minute Theatre
as Paddy
1965
3.4
Three Clear Sundays
as Nick
1965
5.0
The Wednesday Play
as Bethold Florenberg
1964
4.5
It's Dark Outside
as Hammond
1964
0.0
Seventy Deadly Pills
as Covent Garden porter
1963
6.0
The Avengers
1961
7.7
No Hiding Place
1959
3.7