
Acting
Born December 7, 1937 · Manchester, England, UK
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.

Scar Tissue
2013

LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out
2012

Greetings
2007

Like Father Like Son
2005
Hold Back the Night
1999

Shadow Run
1998

Brassed Off
1996

Robert Rylands' Last Journey
1996

Solomon & Sheba
1995

Unnatural Causes
1993

The Secret Life of Arnold Bax
1992

La Vie de Bohème
1992

Prisoner of Honor
1991

The Last Island
1990

I Hired a Contract Killer
1990

Kremlin Farewell
1990

The Plot to Kill Hitler
1990

The Rainbow
1989

A Master of the Marionettes
1989

A Summer Story
1988

Casanova
1987

The Whistle Blower
1986

Return to Waterloo
1984

Return of the Jedi
1983

The Scarlet and the Black
1983

Giro City
1982

Firefox
1982

I Remember Nelson
1982

The Empire Strikes Back
1980

Life of Brian
1979

The Danedyke Mystery
1979

Measure for Measure
1979

Les Misérables
1978

One Bummer News Day
1978

Come the Revolution
1977

The Testing of Eric Olthwaite
1977

Jabberwocky
1977
Three Days in Szczecin
1976

The Chester Mystery Plays
1976

Lisztomania
1975

Flame
1975

Juggernaut
1974

Mahler
1974

Hitler: The Last Ten Days
1973

The Triple Echo
1972

The Boy Friend
1971

The Devils
1971

The Music Lovers
1971

Performance
1970

Dance of the Seven Veils
1970
Cause of Death
1968

The Blood Beast Terror
1968
Who Pays?
1968

How I Won the War
1967

The Jokers
1967

Three Clear Sundays
1965

Seventy Deadly Pills
1963