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Kenneth Colley

1937-12-07

The 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.

Kenneth Colley in

Movies

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The Empire Strikes Back

8.4 average rating
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Return of the Jedi

7.905 average rating
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Life of Brian

7.76 average rating
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Firefox

6.046 average rating
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Hitler: The Last Ten Days

6.1 average rating
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Les Misérables

7.197 average rating
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The Devils

7.487 average rating
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The Scarlet and the Black

7 average rating
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Juggernaut

6.2 average rating
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Jabberwocky

6.1 average rating
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I Hired a Contract Killer

6.884 average rating
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The Blood Beast Terror

5.5 average rating
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Brassed Off

7 average rating
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Performance

6.742 average rating
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LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out

6.407 average rating
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La Vie de Bohème

7.5 average rating
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Mahler

6.738 average rating
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Lisztomania

6 average rating
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The Jokers

6 average rating
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A Summer Story

6.2 average rating