Remembering Michael Pennington (Moff Jerjerrod), 1943-2026
The Star Wars galaxy lost another light on May 7, 2026 when actor/director/writer Michael Pennington, known to fans as Moff Jerjerrod in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, died at the retirement home Denville Hall in London, England. Our condolences go out to all of his family, friends, and colleagues.
Born on June 7, 1943 in Cambridge, England, Pennington embarked on his acting career not long after graduating from Trinity College, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and playing a role in Hamlet, among other productions. He left the RSC and spent eight years acting in various stage productions in London before returning to the RSC in 1974.
During the 1970s, he acted with Judi Dench on numerous occasions. His stage career continued well into the 2000s, and in 1986 he co-founded the English Shakespeare Company with director Michael Bogdanov. He also played many roles on TV from 1965 to 2022, appeared in two radio shows, one of which adapted Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451, and wrote ten books many centered around the works of Shakespeare.
“We shall double our efforts!”
In 1983, he played the role of Moff Jerjerrod, one of only four films he appeared in (well, technically five, but we’ll get to that in a minute), in Return of the Jedi. He beat out Alan Rickman for the role of the Imperial leader in charge of construction of the second Death Star.
His most noteworthy scene in the film happens in the opening minutes, as Darth Vader arrives at the space station to inform Jerjerrod that the Emperor himself would be making a visit to find out why construction had fallen behind schedule.
“We shall double our efforts!” Jerjerrod exclaims. Vader replies: “I hope so, Commander, for your sake. The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am.”
Pennington’s other film roles included 2011’s The Iron Lady, which also starred Meryl Streep, and in 1997 he made his second Star Wars appearance in the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back: when Vader returns to his Super Star Destroyer after leaving Bespin, the shot of him arriving in the hangar is actually an unused angle from Return of the Jedi. As a result, Pennington can be seen in the shot, which has led fans to assume that Jerjerrod was working his way up the Imperial ranks at the time.