Remembering Admiral Piett, Kenneth Colley (1937 – 2025)
The Star Wars galaxy became a little dimmer on June 30, 2025 when Kenneth Colley, best remembered for playing Admiral Piett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, died of COVID-19 and pneumonia. Our condolences go out to his friends, family, colleagues, and everyone else who knew him.
Born in Manchester, England in 1937, Colley first broke through as the character Noah Riley in the 1970s BBC police drama The Sweeney. His early work also included a small appearance on the show Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which led to his role as Jesus in Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Colley also connected with British director Ken Russell and played roles in several of his films from the early 1970s through the early 1990s, including but not limited to: Modest Tchaikovsky in The Music Lovers and LeGrand in The Devils (both 1971), Frédéric Chopin in Lisztomania (1975), Mr. Brunt in an adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow (1989), and his final role for Russell, the composer John Ireland in The Secret Life of Arnold Bax (1992).
His other roles included a Soviet colonel in Clint Eastwood’s 1982 film Firefox and SS Standartenführer Paul Blobel in the 1988 TV mini-series War and Remembrance. Colley also directed a horror film, Greetings, that was released in 2007.
A long time ago, on a soundstage far, far away…
Of course, Colley is fondly remembered by Star Wars fans for his role as Admiral Piett, who was first seen in The Empire Strikes Back as Captain Piett of Darth Vader’s Super Star Destroyer, Executor. When the ranking officer, Admiral Ozzel (Michael Sheard), brings the Imperial Fleet out of hyperspace too close to the Rebel Alliance’s new base on Hoth, Vader makes him pay for the mistake by Force choking him to death and promoting Piett to admiral on the spot.
Admiral Piett continues to play a key role in Vader’s pursuit of Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and C-3PO, who have fled Hoth in the Millennium Falcon and its ailing hyperdrive. Despite his failure at the end of The Empire Strikes Back to capture the spacecraft as it leaves Bespin, Admiral Piett lives on in Return of the Jedi.
Piett remains in command of the Executor during the climactic battle around Endor in the third film of the original Star Wars trilogy, eventually meeting his doom when the massive ship is incapacitated and plunges into the second Death Star. Thus Piett’s career in the Imperial Navy comes to an end.