Kenneth Colley
Born: 1937-12-07 in Manchester, England, UK
Died: 2025-06-30
Known For: Acting
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.
Filmography
2025
- The Institute as Gate Guard #5
2024
- Dan Hawk Psychic Detective as Thaddeus Moncrief
2013
- Peaky Blinders as Vicente Changretta
- Scar Tissue as Weaver
2012
- LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out as Admiral Piett (voice)
2011
- Vera as Ronald Devreux
2007
- Greetings as Ken
2005
- Like Father Like Son as Rawsthorne
2004
2003
- The Royal as Bernard Hussey
2002
- Foyle's War as Brian Jones
1999
- Relic Hunter as Professor Lamenza
- Hold Back the Night as Uncle Bob
- Always and Everyone as Joseph
- The Last Train
1998
- Shadow Run as Larcombe
- The Mrs Bradley Mysteries as Archie Burlington
1997
- Midsomer Murders as Lloyd Kirby
1996
- Brassed Off as Greasley
- Robert Rylands' Last Journey as Archdale
1995
- Solomon & Sheba as Nathan
1994
- Wycliffe as Sam Peploe
1993
- Peak Practice as Stan Jordan
- Unnatural Causes as Inspector Gerry Reckless
1992
- Heartbeat as Clive Harris
- La Vie de Bohème as Street Sweeper
- Between the Lines as Chief Supt. Tattersall
- 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
- The Plot to Kill Hitler as Wilhelm Keitel
- The Last Island as Nick
- Kremlin Farewell as Sergej
1989
- Agatha Christie's Poirot as Mathew Davenheim
- The Rainbow as Mr. Brunt
- A Master of the Marionettes as Inspector Tennyson
1988
- A Summer Story as Jim
- The Modern World: Ten Great Writers as Chief Inspector Heat
1987
- Inspector Morse as DCI Patrick Dawson
- Casanova as Le Duc
1986
- Casualty as Paddy
- The Whistle Blower as Bill Pickett
- John Silver's Return to Treasure Island as Ben Gunn
1985
- Mussolini: The Untold Story as King Vittorio Emmanuele
- Wallenberg: A Hero's Story as Adolf Eichmann
1984
- Return to Waterloo as The Traveller
1983
- Return of the Jedi as Admiral Piett
- The Scarlet and the Black as Capt. Hirsch
1982
- Firefox as Colonel Kontarsky
- Giro City as Martin
- The Kenny Everett Television Show as Self
- I Remember Nelson as ice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson
- I Remember Nelson as Vice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson
1981
- Peter and Paul as Theodotus
1980
- The Empire Strikes Back as Admiral Piett
1979
- Minder as Ron
- Life of Brian as Jesus
- The Danedyke Mystery as The Major
- Measure for Measure as Duke Vincentio
1978
- Les Misérables as Police Prefect
- One Bummer News Day as Frank Benyon
- Pennies from Heaven as The Accordion Man
1977
- Jabberwocky as 1st Fanatic
- The Testing of Eric Olthwaite as Robber
- Target as Jessal
- Come the Revolution as Bruce Tetley
1976
- Ripping Yarns as Robber
- Dickens of London as Robert Seymour
- Three Days in Szczecin as Edmund Bałuka
1975
- The Sweeney as Noah Riley
- Lisztomania as Frederic Chopin
- The Love School as Edward Burne-Jones
- Flame as Tony Devlin
1974
- Juggernaut as Detective Brown
- Mahler as Krenek
- Churchill's People as Ancient Beau
- Fall of Eagles as Father Gapon
1973
- Hitler: The Last Ten Days as Boldt
- Black and Blue as Schultz
1972
- Crown Court as Stanley Meredith
- The Protectors as Devlin
- The Triple Echo as Provo Corporal
1971
- The Devils as Legrand
- The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes as Farrish
- The Boy Friend as King in fantasy sequence (uncredited)
- The Music Lovers as Modeste Tchaikovsky
1970
- Play for Today as Bruce Tetley
- Performance as Tony Farrell
- Dance of the Seven Veils
1968
- The Expert as Foreman
- Who Pays? as Corbett
- The Blood Beast Terror as James
1967
- Omnibus as Hitler
- The Jokers as De Winter
- How I Won the War as 2nd Replacement
1966
- The Informer as Slater
1965
- BBC Play of the Month as Yolinichev
- Thirty-Minute Theatre as Paddy
- Three Clear Sundays as Nick
1964
- The Wednesday Play as Bethold Florenberg
- It's Dark Outside as Hammond
1963
- Seventy Deadly Pills as Covent Garden porter
1961
- The Avengers
- A for Andromeda as Dead Body (uncredited)