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Star Wars Actor Kenneth Colley Dies at 87 After Contracting COVID and Pneumonia

Kenneth Colley, an actor best recognized as the 'Star Wars' character Admiral Piett, died at 87 on Sunday, June 30, after contracting COVID and pneumonia, as his agent Julian Owen confirmed in a statement shared with PEOPLE on Thursday, July 3.

As Owen's statement mentioned, Colley's role in the 1979 Monty Python comedy Life of Brian was among one of his best-known film parts, but many more moviegoers will recognize him as the Star Wars character Admiral Piett, who appears alongside Darth Vader in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's Return of the Jedi. As The Atlantic noted in a 2015 article, Colley's run in both Empire and Jedi makes him the only actor to portray an Imperial officer in the original six Star Wars movies who appears in more than one film. "Ken's favorite part was playing Estragon in the stage production of Beckett's classic Waiting for Godot at the Cockpit Theatre in London in 2014," Owen said in his statement.

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