Kenneth 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,” Owens 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.
The statement from Colley’s agent added: “Ken’s favourite part was playing Estragon in the stage production of Beckett’s classic Waiting for Godot at the Cockpit Theatre in London in 2014.”