Early life and stage career

Revill was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Eleanor May (née Neel) and Malet Barford Revill. He attended Rongotai College. He originally trained to be an accountant in New Zealand, but decided to change his career path in 1950 when he made his stage debut as Sebastian in Twelfth Night. He then moved to England, where he appeared in The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company's celebrated 1956-1958 season of productions in Stratford, which included Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar and The Tempest. He went on to have such varied stage roles as Ratty in Toad of Toad Hall and Jean-Paul Marat in Marat/Sade.

He made his Broadway debut in 1952, playing Mr. Pickwick in The Pickwick Papers, and subsequently appeared in Irma La Douce, The Incomparable Max and Oliver!, for which his Fagin was nominated for a Tony Award. He is also known for his roles in the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, on both stage and television. He starred in the first national tour of the musical Drood, replacing George Rose, who was murdered during the run.

He also participated in the workshop production of Tom Jones: The Musical, playing the role of Squire Western and reprising it on the cast recording.

Film career

His red hair and distinctive Mr. Punch-like features often saw him cast as comic eccentrics in a number of British films of the 1960s and 1970s such as Kaleidoscope (1966), Modesty Blaise (1966), Fathom (1967), The Assassination Bureau (1969) and One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975). He also had notable supporting turns in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) opposite Laurence Olivier, and his American film debut A Fine Madness (1966), as well as a rare leading role in the horror film The Legend of Hell House (1973).

He was often cast as humorous foreign characters (he has played everything from Chinese to Russian). Two of his highest profile roles of this kind were in two films for Billy Wilder: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) and Avanti! (1972), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his part as put-upon hotel manager Carlo Carlucci.

Television career

In the 1978 television miniseries Centennial, he played the Scottish accountant Finlay Perkin. He played both Ko-Ko (the starring role) in The Mikado, and the title character, John Wellington Wells, in The Sorcerer for the Brent Walker television series of Gilbert and Sullivan productions, shown by the BBC in 1983.

After relocating to the United States, he guest-starred in many television series, such as Columbo, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Magnum, P.I., The Love Boat, Remington Steele, Murder, She Wrote, Babylon 5, The Feather and Father Gang, Newhart, MacGyver, Dear John, The Fall Guy, Maude, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He starred as the wizard Vector in the short-lived series Wizards and Warriors.

Voice work

He is also known for his voice work in feature-length films and animated series, which includes Alfred Pennyworth in the first three episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, the voice of Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious in the original 1980 version of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (he was later replaced by Ian McDiarmid in the 2004 DVD version to maintain continuity with Return of the Jedi and the Prequel trilogy, though Revill is still credited), numerous cartoons such as The Transformers, Batman: The Animated Series and DuckTales and more recently video games, including Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Conquest: Frontier Wars.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1959	The Headless Ghost	The Ghost of the Fourth Earl of Ambrose
1965	Bunny Lake Is Missing	Andrews
1966	Modesty Blaise	McWhirter / Sheik Abu Tahir
	A Fine Madness	Dr Menken
	Kaleidoscope	Inspector 'Manny' McGinnis
1967	The Double Man	Frank Wheatley
	Fathom	Serapkin
1968	The Shoes of the Fisherman	Tovarich Vucovich
	Italian Secret Service	Charles Harrison
1969	The Assassination Bureau	Cesare Spado
1970	The Buttercup Chain	George
	The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes	Rogozhin
1971	Boulevard du Rhum	Lord Hammond
1972	Avanti!	Carlo Carlucci
1973	The Legend of Hell House	Dr Barrett
1974	The Black Windmill	Alf Chestermann
1975	Galileo	Ballad Singer
	One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing	Quon
1979	Charlie Muffin	Alexei Berenkov
1980	The Empire Strikes Back	The Emperor	Voice only in original release and 1997 special edition
1981	Zorro, The Gay Blade	Garcia
1986	The Frog Prince	The King
	The Transformers: The Movie	Kickback	Voice
1987	Rumpelstiltskin	King Mezzer
1989	Mack the Knife	Money Matthew
	Jake Spanner, Private Eye	Herbert Soames
1991	Let Him Have It	Albert Pierrepoint
1993	The Thief and the Cobbler	King Nod
1995	Dracula: Dead and Loving It	Sykes
2002	Crime and Punishment	Captain Zamyotov
	Return to Never Land	Narrator / Elderly officer	Voice
2003	101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure	Additional voices	Direct-to-video film
	The Jungle Book 2	Additional voices
2009	Gentlemen Broncos	Cletus
2012	Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse	King Richard / Referee	Direct-to-video film, voice

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1957	The Adventures of Robin Hood	Horatio	Episode: "Too Many Earls"
1975	Churchill's People	King Henry II	Episode: "A Sprig of Broom"
1983	Wizards and Warriors	Wizard Vector	8 episodes
1984	George Washington	Lord Loudoun	3 episodes
1984-1986	Transformers	Kickback	5 episodes
1987	DuckTales	Shedlock Jones	Episode: "Dr Jekyll & McDuck", voice
1991	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Sir Guy of Gisborne	Episode: "Qpid"
1992	Batman: The Animated Series	Alfred Pennyworth	3 episodes
1993	The Little Mermaid	Sorcerer Blowfish	2 episodes
1994	Babylon 5	Trakis	Episode: "Born to the Purple"
1997	Step by Step	Professor Robert Nesler	Episode: "Talking Trash"

Other

• Peter Pan's Flight (1955)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]