Michael Pennington dies: ‘Star Wars: Return of the Jedi’ actor was 82

Michael Pennington, the British actor best known to film audiences for playing Death Star Commander Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, has died at the age of 82. 

The Telegraph reported his death on Sunday.

Pennington appeared in the 1983 film in one of its most memorable scenes, receiving orders from Darth Vader as the Empire’s sinister military commander. 

Despite the role proving enduringly popular with Star Wars fans, Pennington was characteristically self-critical when looking back on it. 

“I look at it now and I think I overact horribly and I can’t even remember the story-line,” he said in a 2012 interview. 

“We all did it for a song but I suppose that it has given me some kind of calling card for movies.” 

He noted that for years after the film, audiences waiting at the stage door after his theatre performances would ask almost exclusively about Star Wars, though by 2012 he found that The Iron Lady was generating as much conversation.

His career extended far beyond that galaxy far, far away. 

He played Laertes in a 1969 production of Hamlet and portrayed politician Michael Foot in the 2011 film The Iron Lady, alongside Meryl Streep. 

In 1986, Pennington co-founded the English Shakespeare Company with theatre director Michael Bogdanov, an organisation dedicated to promoting the work of William Shakespeare that stands as a significant part of his legacy.

Pennington married actress Katharine Barker in 1964 and the pair had a son, Mark, before divorcing in 1967. 

His partner, arts administrator Prue Skene, died last year.

The Telegraph remembered him warmly as “a warm and pleasant man” who “enjoyed the company of fellow actors and took his turn in cooking a meal for everyone,” and who was known at one time for giving out jars of his homemade quince butter.