The sad news is coming out today that Kenneth Colley, the British actor who portrayed Admiral Firmus Piett across two Star Wars films, has passed away at the age of 87.
Colley had enjoyed having many roles in his six decades as an actor. He did some work with Monty Python (that's him playing Jesus in the opening of Life of Brian) and he appeared in Clint Eastwood's 1982 sci-fi Cold War thriller Firefox. Colley was also among the amazing cast of the sweeping television epic War and Remembrance.
But it is his portrayal of Captain... and then Admiral... Piett that is most remembered in the annals of pop culture.
Piett first appeared in 1980's Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back as the captain of Executor, Darth Vader's flagship Super Star Destroyer. Following the deployment of thousands of probe droids across the galaxy, Piett was monitoring their progress when a droid in the Hoth system picked up signs of habitation. Admiral Ozzel was quick to brush it off, though Vader took interest and was convinced that this was the Rebel base that the Empire was looking for. Vader ordered the fleet to set course for Hoth, as Ozzel gave Piett a spiteful glare. Piett merely stood in quiet confidence, content to have done his job to the best of his ability.
I think that Darth Vader appreciated that. Vader appreciated Piett as a man. I have to wonder if Vader had wanted Piett to be higher up in the chain of command all along. It would explain Vader's disdain for Ozzel. When Ozzel messed up by coming out of hyperspace too close to Hoth, Vader was all too eager to express his displeasure. Vader immediately tapped Piett to take Ozzel's place: "You are in command now, Admiral Piett." Piett expressed his thanks and immediately gestured for Ozzel's corpse be taken off the bridge. And then toward the end of the film, when standing there after Vader had lost the Millennium Falcon, Piett awaited his lord's next action, certainly that he now would be punished. Instead Vader walked away, and no doubt Piett breathed an inward sigh of relief.
Piett showed up again in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He must have been doing something right because by that point in the story he had survived being admiral aboard the Executor for a year. Admiral Piett had been ordered by Emperor Palpatine to move the fleet around the Death Star to the far side of the Endor moon, where it waited to ambush the incoming Rebel forces. In the massive space battle that followed a Rebel A-wing veered out of control and slammed into Executor's bridge. Piett and the rest of the command staff were killed, and Executor was sent smashing into the second Death Star's surface.
Piett has been called one of the most important of the many background characters in the Star Wars saga. Kenneth Colley certainly brought dignity and gravitas to the role. It was one of those nuances that gave Star Wars its rich and deep presence in our culture. It also endeared himself tremendously with fans, who Colley always came across as being very appreciative of. I had the honor of meeting him a couple of times, at Star Wars Celebration II and then III a few years later. The first time we met, I told him that it must be quite something to be known as "the luckiest guy in the Empire". Colley said that he heard that quite a bit actually!
He played an honorable and decent bad guy, and you had to respect a character like Piett. Colley really was the only person who could have pulled that off as magnificently as he did.
I think that in his memory I'll plop in my Blu-Ray of The Empire Strikes Back for background sound as I work this afternoon. Which includes this classic scene of Darth Vader "promoting" Piett to admiral:
