Michael Pennington, a British actor, director, and writer who appeared as Commander Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, has passed away. He was 82 years old.
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Born as Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington in June 1943, the actor’s career spanned more than 60 years. Alongside director Michael Bogdanov, he founded the English Shakespeare Company in 1986. He was the company’s Joint Artistic Director from its founding until 1992.
His first onscreen film was Hamlet in 1969. He assumed the role of Laertes.
More than a decade later, he appeared as Moff Jerjerrod in the final film of the original Star Wars trilogy. Archive footage for his role was later placed in The Empire Strikes Back special edition in 1997.
More than 20 years after The Empire Strikes Back, Pennington reappeared on the big screen in the 2005 Spanish-British horror film Fragile. In 2011, he starred opposite Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady.
Among his TV credits are The Witches of Pendle, Danton’s Death, Cymbeline, Freud, and State of Play. His final TV appearance was in Raised by Wolves in 2022.
As a longtime member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Pennington had more than 70 screen roles.
Pennington Once Revealed How He Landed the Role in ‘Star Wars: Return of the Jedi’
In a 2020 interview with StarWarsInterviews.com, Pennington recalled how he landed the role of Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
“I had just had the great good fortune playing Hamlet for [the Royal Shakespeare Company],” he explained. “And when you play a part of that kind there are people who say to you, oh, my goodness, what are you going to do next? What’s going to be the next great mountain you’re going to climb. What’s it going to be? The first thing I was offered was three days on Star Wars. This new Star Wars movie, I didn’t know anything about, Return of the Jedi.”
Pennington noted that the role sounded “fun and easy,” and he was only on the film’s set for three days.
“So I’m really here at this convention under false pretenses because that’s all I did,” he pointed out. “On the other hand, I enjoy this, the fact that the films have lasted so well that people still have such enthusiasm. But whether you go to Cincinnati, Utrecht, Birmingham, or Minneapolis, wherever you go, there is always the same. And I love to be part of that. To be part of a convention is great. So I got to just in the normal way. My agent said they wanted me for three days, and I decided to do it.
He further revealed that he didn’t audition for the role, nor did he get to meet Star Wars creator George Lucas.”So it’s sort of funny, haphazard way in which work comes to actors.”
Pennington then admitted that he hadn’t seen the first two Star Wars movies before getting cast for the role. “I knew a little bit, or I asked around. I did get them in when I knew I was going to do my first convention about 18 months ago.”
He then added, “I thought, I’m going to sit and watch the whole thing.”