LONDON: Michael Pennington, the British actor best known for his role in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi and his distinguished Shakespearean theatre career, has died at the age of 82, his representatives confirmed on Monday.
Pennington was widely recognised for portraying Death Star commander Moff Jerjerrod in the Star Wars franchise, but he was also celebrated as one of Britain’s leading classical actors and an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Alongside theatre director Michael Bogdanov, Pennington co-founded the English Shakespeare Company and built a decades-long reputation through performances in major Shakespeare productions across the UK and internationally.
Tributes poured in following news of his death, including from actress Miriam Margolyes, who described him as a “very fine actor, brilliant, wise, clear.”
Born in Cambridge, England, in 1943, Pennington began his television career in 1965 with a role in the BBC mini-series The War of the Roses.
Over the course of his career, he appeared in more than 70 screen productions, including The Iron Lady, where he starred alongside Meryl Streep. The film earned Streep an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Pennington also frequently collaborated with Judi Dench and her late husband Michael Williams in theatre productions, including King Lear.
In a 2015 interview, Pennington said watching Dench perform in Hamlet inspired him to pursue acting.
His final credited role came in 2022 when he voiced The Trust in the science-fiction television series Raised by Wolves.
