Michael Pennington, the British actor best known to cinema audiences for playing Death Star commander Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedidied at the age of 82.
The telegraph announced his death on Sunday.
Pennington appeared in the 1983 film in one of its most memorable scenes, receiving orders from Darth Vader as the Empire’s sinister military commander.
Although the role proved enduringly popular with Star Wars fans, Pennington was typically self-critical looking back on it.
“I look at it now and I think I’m exaggerating horribly and I don’t even remember the script,” he said in a 2012 interview.
“We all did it for a song but I guess it gave me a sort of calling card for films.”
He noted that for years after the film, audiences waiting at the stage door after his theatrical performances would almost exclusively ask questions about Star Warsalthough in 2012 he discovered that The Iron Lady generated so many conversations.
His career extended far beyond this galaxy, far, far away.
He played Laertes in a 1969 production of Hamlet and portrayed politician Michael Foot in the 2011 film The Iron Ladyalongside Meryl Streep.
In 1986, Pennington co-founded the English Shakespeare Company with director Michael Bogdanov, an organization dedicated to promoting the work of William Shakespeare which constitutes an important part of his legacy.
Pennington married actress Katharine Barker in 1964 and the couple had a son, Mark, before divorcing in 1967.
His partner, arts administrator Prue Skene, died last year.
The telegraph remembered him warmly as “a warm, pleasant man” who “enjoyed the company of other actors and in turn prepared a meal for everyone” and who was known at one time for handing out jars of his homemade quince butter.
