Iconic British actor Kenneth Colley, best known in our circles as a veteran of the second and third Star Wars movies in the role of Admiral Piett, and as Jesus in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, has died at the age of 87. He was born December 7, 1937 in Manchester, Lancashire, England, U.K. He died June 30, 2025 in Ashford, Kent, England, U.K, after having contracted COVID and then developing pneumonia as a result.

Colley Had a Long and Full Career

Colley said he came to acting the hard way, starting out as a general dogsbody, gopher and assistant in repertory theatre. In his own words: “…they threw you on stage in small parts so they didn’t have to pay an actor. It’s the traditional way, before drama schools came into being, so it’s a long tradition. Well my drama school was the street. I have been with some of the best anyway. You know, Tony Hopkins, John Gielgud, Colin Blakely, Glenda Jackson. They don’t come any better than those people.” Colley began his theatrical career in 1961, treading the boards in Leicester.

Ken Colley was one of our finest character actors with a career spanning 60 years,” Colley’s agent, Julian Owen, said in a statement to People on Thursday. “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’ or the BBC.”

When he wasn’t appearing in the horror films such as The Devils (1971), The Blood Beast Terror (1968), Scar Tissue (2013), and Greetings (2007) Colley had a reputation appearing in WWII films, He played Adolf Hitler, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the last king of Italy, and Adolf Eichmann, as well as SS Standartenfuhrer Paul Blobel. He was definitely the first actor to play both Adolf Hitler and Jesus, and quite possibly the only actor to play both. It says something for his talent that he was able to play both roles successfully.

Colley on Colley

Colley considered himself privileged to work with Monty Python. In addition to his role in Life of Brian, he also appeared in their film Jabberwocky (1977).

Colley almost wasn’t in Return of the Jedi. Admiral Piett wasn’t in the original draft of the script. As he explained it, “Admiral Piett wasn’t in the script of the third movie. I got a call from my agent saying there’s been a lot of fan mail about this character and George [Lucas] has decided to put him in the next one, do you want to do it, and I said sure, yeah. Who wouldn’t? So I went and sat on the set while George wrote scenes for me as he was talking about the saga. I remember sitting in while they were rehearsing how to make Jabba the Hutt work. He wrote a scene and gave it to me as we were sat watching them rehearsing with this huge thing. Because in those days it wasn’t CGI, what you saw on the screen was actually three dimensionally there, whether it was tiny or as big as a room.”

With a career lasting six decades, Colley did Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Victor Hugo, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, and George Lucas. His first role before the camera was in the British SciFi TV show A is for Andromeda, playing a dead body. He soon moved up to more challenging roles, appearing in The Avengers (the British spy show in 1963), not the American superhero movie. His final role was Thaddeus Moncrief in Dan Hawk, Psychic Detective (2024) . A career spanning 1961 to 2024 is a good run for any actor.

Geek Cred

In addition to playing Admiral Piett in three movies: The Empire Strikes Back, The Return of the Jedi, and Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out (2012), Colley appeared in four horror movies. Colley also appeared starred in the short Star Wars: Force of Evil (2015), written and directed by Russ Gomm.

Kenneth Colley directed three movies, all of which he wrote and starred in: the horror film Greetings, and the shorts Alligator (2007) and A Nearly Silent Film (2006).

Colley is survived by his wife, Mary Dunne Colley. He unfortunately died on their 63rd wedding anniversary. Our condolences to Mrs.Colley.