Career

Unlike the other ill-fated officers who appeared alongside him in The Empire Strikes Back, Colley was the only actor to play an Imperial officer in more than one Star Wars film. Colley reprised his role as Piett in the Cartoon Network animated special Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out in September 2012. Coincidently, Colley and David Prowse had a part in the 1977 fantasy film Jabberwocky.

Colley was born in Manchester, Lancashire. He played Jesus in The Life of Brian, having also appeared in the earlier Monty Python-related production Ripping Yarns episode "The Testing of Eric Olthwaite" alongside Michael Palin. As a Shakespearean actor he played the Duke of Vienna in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of Measure for Measure in 1979.

Colley also held an important role in the Clint Eastwood film Firefox, where he played a Soviet Colonel tasked with the protection of the Firefox and its secrets.

Colley went on to play SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel in the World War II drama War and Remembrance. He directed one film to date, Greetings, a 2007 horror film starring Kirsty Cox, Henry Dunn and Ben Shockley. According to comments which Terry Gilliam (who directed him in Jabberwocky and acted with him in Life of Brian) made in the DVD audio commentaries for both films, Colley is a terrible stammerer in real life. When he had a role in a film, however, he could recite the lines perfectly. Stuttering is a character trait, however, in his role as the "Accordion Man" in the 1978 BBC television drama, Pennies from Heaven.

Personal life

Colley lives in Hythe, Kent.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	The Jokers	De Winter
	How I Won the War	2nd Replacement
1968	The Blood Beast Terror	James
1970	Performance	Tony Farrell
	The Music Lovers	Modeste Tchaikovsky
1971	The Devils	Legrand
1972	The Triple Echo	Provo Corporal
1973	Hitler: The Last Ten Days	Boldt
1974	Fall of Eagles	Father Gapon
	Mahler	Krenek
	Juggernaut	Detective Brown
1975	Lisztomania	Frédéric Chopin
	Slade in Flame	Tony Devlin
1977	Jabberwocky	1st Fanatic
1979	Monty Python's Life of Brian	Jesus
	Measure For Measure	'Duke of Vienna'
1980	The Empire Strikes Back	Admiral Piett
1981	Peter and Paul	Theodotus
1982	Giro City	Martin
	Firefox	Colonel Kontarsky
1983	The Scarlet and the Black	Captain Hirsch
	Return of the Jedi	Admiral Piett
1984	Return to Waterloo	'The Traveller'
1987	The Whistle Blower	Bill Pickett
1988	A Summer Story	Jim
1989	The Rainbow	Mr. Brunt
1990	I Hired a Contract Killer	'The Killer'
	The Plot to Kill Hitler	Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
1996	Brassed Off	Greasley
1997	Shadow Run	Larcombe

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	The Nine Tailors	Potty Peake	TV mini-series, Series 1 Episode 3, Lord Peter Wimsey
1977	Ripping Yarns	Arthur the Robber	1 episode, The Testing of Eric Outhwaite
1978	Les Misérables	Police Prefect	TV movie
1978	Pennies from Heaven	The Accordion Man	6 episodes, TV mini-series
1985	Wallenberg: A Hero's Story	Adolf Eichmann	TV movie
	Mussolini: The Untold Story	King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy	TV mini-series
1986	Return to Treasure Island	Ben Gunn	10 episodes, credited as Ken Colley
1988	War and Remembrance	SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel	2 episodes, TV mini-series
1991	Inspector Morse	DCI Patrick Dawson	Episode 16 Second Time Around
	Prisoner of Honor	Captain Alfred Dreyfus	TV movie
1993	Unnatural Causes	Inspector Gerry Reckless	TV movie
2006	Foyle's War	Brian Jones	1 episode, Bad Blood
2009	Casualty 1909	Dr. Frederick Smith	3 episodes
2012	Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out	Admiral Piett	TV movie
2013	Vera	Ronald Devreux	Series 3, Episode 3 Young Gods
	Misfits	Old Rudy	Series 5, Episode 4

[ Source: Wikipedia ]