Kenneth Colley

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1937-12-07 (86 years old)

Place of Birth Manchester, England, UK

Also Known As Kenneth Cooley, Ken Colley

Kenneth Colley

Biography

Kenneth Colley (born 7 December 1937) is 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 The Life of Brian, having also appeared in the earlier Monty 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 in 1979. Colley also held an important role in the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox, where he played a Soviet Colonel tasked with the protection of the Firefox and its secrets. Colley went on to play 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 1978 BBC television drama, Pennies from Heaven. He has also recently starred in BBC's HolbyBlue as a drunk and violent father, grandfather and father-in-law. He currently lives at Hythe in Kent. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kenneth Colley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Actor

2013
Scar Tissue

as Weaver

2013
Peaky Blinders

as Vicente Changretta

2012
2011
Vera

as Ronald Devreux

2009
Misfits

as Old Rudy

2007
Greetings

as Ken

2005
Like Father Like Son

as Rawsthorne

2003
The Royal

as Bernard Hussey

1999
Hold Back the Night

as Uncle Bob

1999
Relic Hunter

as Professor Lamenza

1998
Shadow Run

as Larcombe

1998
The Mrs Bradley Mysteries

as Archie Burlington

1997
Midsomer Murders

as Lloyd Kirby

1996
Brassed Off

as Greasley

1995
Solomon & Sheba

as Nathan

1994
Wycliffe

as Sam Peploe

1993
Unnatural Causes

as Inspector Gerry Reckless

1993
Peak Practice

as Stan Jordan

1992
1992
La Vie de Bohème

as Street Sweeper

1992
Between the Lines

as Chief Supt. Tattersall

1992
Heartbeat

as Clive Harris

1991
Prisoner of Honor

as Capt. Dreyfus

1990
1990
1990
1990
The Plot to Kill Hitler

as Wilhelm Keitel

1989
The Rainbow

as Mr. Brunt

1989
A Master of the Marionettes

as Inspector Tennyson

1989
Agatha Christie's Poirot

as Mathew Davenheim

1988
1988
The Modern World: Ten Great Writers

as Chief Inspector Heat

1987
Casanova

as Le Duc

1987
Inspector Morse

as DCI Patrick Dawson

1986
The Whistle Blower

as Bill Pickett

1986
Casualty

as Paddy

1986
Casualty

as Clifford Watkins

1986
Casualty

as Arthur Cobb

1985
Wallenberg: A Hero's Story

as Adolph Eichmann

1985
Mussolini: The Untold Story

as King Vittorio Emmanuele

1985
Wallenberg: A Hero's Story

as Adolf Eichmann

1984
Return to Waterloo

as The Traveller

1983
Return of the Jedi

as Admiral Piett

1983
1982
Giro City

as Martin

1982
Firefox

as Colonel Kontarsky

1982
I Remember Nelson

as Vice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson

1982
I Remember Nelson

as ice-Adm. Horatio Viscount Nelson

1981
Peter and Paul

as Theodotus

1980
The Empire Strikes Back

as Admiral Piett

1979
Life of Brian

as Jesus

1979
1979
Measure for Measure

as Duke Vincentio

1979
Minder

as Ron

1978
Les Misérables

as Police Prefect

1978
One Bummer News Day

as Frank Benyon

1978
Pennies from Heaven

as The Accordion Man

1978
1977
Come the Revolution

as Bruce Tetley

1977
Jabberwocky

as 1st Fanatic

1976
Ripping Yarns

as Robber

1975
Lisztomania

as Frederic Chopin

1975
Flame

as Tony Devlin

1975
The Love School

as Edward Burne-Jones

1975
The Sweeney

as Noah Riley

1974
Juggernaut

as Detective Brown

1974
Mahler

as Krenek

1974
Fall of Eagles

as Father Gapon

1973
High Kampf

as Schultz

1972
The Triple Echo

as Provo Corporal

1972
Crown Court

as Stanley Meredith

1972
The Protectors

as Devlin

1971
The Boy Friend

as King in fantasy sequence (uncredited)

1971
The Devils

as Legrand

1971
The Music Lovers

as Modeste Tchaikovsky

1970
Performance

as Tony Farrell (as Ken Colley)

1970
Play for Today

as Bruce Tetley

1970
Play for Today

as Frank Benyon

1968
Who Pays?

as Corbett

1968
The Expert

as Foreman

1968
The Expert

as Munt

1967
How I Won the War

as 2nd Replacement

1967
The Jokers

as De Winter

1964
The Wednesday Play

as Bethold Florenberg

1963
Seventy Deadly Pills

as Covent Garden porter

1961
A for Andromeda

as Dead Body (uncredited)

Director

2007
Greetings

as Director

Producer

2007
Greetings

as Producer

Writer

2007
Greetings

as Writer