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Ian McDiarmid Filmography
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Ian McDiarmid (born August 11, 1944) is a Scottish actor. He is most famous for his role in Star Wars as Palpatine, the cunning politician who eventually becomes ruler of the evil Empire. He is one of the few actors who has depicted the same character in both of the
Star Wars trilogies.
In the 2004 re-release of ', a brief scene between Darth Vader and a hologram of Emperor Palpatine was updated to have him depicted by McDiarmid (the Emperor was originally voiced by Clive Reville for that scene.) With this addition to
The Empire Strikes Back, Palpatine is now exclusively depicted by McDiarmid in the films.
Ian McDiarmid was born in Carnoustie, Tayside, Scotland. He was an unknown charismatic stage actor in his thirties when he was cast as the most powerful being in the
Star Wars universe. He has achieved little recognition for his role, which may have a lot do with the mysterious absence of his character from Episode VI’s advertising, except from
Star Wars fans with whom he has a kind of cult following. While some fans complained about the addition of
Hayden Christensen to
Return of the Jedi, hardly a word was said about McDiarmid being added to The Empire Strikes Back.
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