In Memoriam: The Legendary "Kenneth Colley" Dies At 87

Keneth Colley, the British actor who played Admiral Piett in the original Star Wars series and Jesus in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, died June 30 at his home in Kent, England, after contracting Covid and developing pneumonia. He was 87. His death was announced by his agent Julian Owen in a statement first reported on by the BBC. 

Ken Colley was one of our finest character actors with a career spanning 60 years,” Owen said in the statement. “Ken continually worked on stage, film, and television playing a vast array of characters, from Jesus in Monty Python’s Life of Brian to evil and eccentric characters in Ken Russell films, and the Duke of Vienna in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure for the BBC.” The BBC reported that Colley had originally been admitted to hospital with an injured arm after a fall, but quickly contracted Covid, which developed into pneumonia.

Colley reprised the role of Admiral Piett in the 2012 animated film Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out. His other credits include Clint Eastwood’s Firefox, Aki Kaurismäki’s I Hired a Contract Killer, and Ken Russell’s The Rainbow.

"Ken Colley was one of our finest character actors with a career spanning 60 years," Owen's statement read. "Ken continually worked on stage, film and television playing a vast array of characters, from Jesus in Monty Python's Life of Brian to evil and eccentric characters in Ken Russell films, and the Duke of Vienna in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure for the BBC."

As Owen's statement mentioned, Colley's role in the 1979 Monty Python comedy Life of Brian was among one of his best-known film parts, but many more moviegoers will recognize him as the Star Wars character Admiral Piett, who appears alongside Darth Vader in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's Return of the Jedi. As The Atlantic noted in a 2015 article, Colley's run in both Empire and Jedi makes him the only actor to portray an Imperial officer in the original six Star Wars movies who appears in more than one film. 

Outside of Star Wars and Life of Brian, Colley held an acting career that lasted more than five decades. He made his screen acting debut in the early 1960s with roles in episodes of A for Andromeda and The Plane Makers, and added dozens of roles to his resume before being cast in Star Wars.recently, Colley appeared in a 2024 movie titled Dan Hawk Psychic Detective and lent his voice to a short film titled I am Tree in 2023. Other notable movies he appeared in include 1982's Firefox, 1999's Holding On, the 1988 miniseries War and Remembrance and 1997's Brassed Off, among others.