Star Wars and Shakespeare actor Michael Pennington dies aged 82

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Stage and screen actor Michael Pennington has died at the age of 82, his representatives have confirmed.

Best known as Death Star Commander Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the actor was an accomplished Shakespearean and is listed as an Honorary Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He also co-founded the English Shakespeare Company alongside theatre director Michael Bogdanov.

Actress Miriam Margolyes led tributes to Pennington, describing him as a “very fine actor, brilliant, wise, clear.”

She said he was “an old friend, from Cambridge [University] days”, adding: “I am sad beyond measure. Bless your dear memory , old chum.”

Born Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington on June 7, 1943, in Cambridge, England, the actor’s on-screen career began in 1965 with a supporting part in the BBC mini-series, The War of the Roses.

He went on to have more than 70 screen roles across his career, including starring opposite actress Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, for which she won her third Academy Award for best actress.

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The English actor was also known for his collaboration with Dame Judi Dench and her husband, Michael Williams, and they starred in several stage productions together, including King Lear.

In an interview with the Independent in 2015, Pennington said watching Dench play Ophelia in a 1957 Hamlet production in London inspired him to go into the theatre.

“There’s no one quite like Judi. For her acting is playing: she’s a lass unparalleled,” he told the paper.

Pennington also had roles in several BBC productions, including The Witches of Pendle, Oedipus The King and an adaptation of Middlemarch.

His last credited role was in 2022, when he voiced The Trust in five episodes of sci-fi series Raised by Wolves.

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