Profile of Ian McDiarmid on Famous Like Me

Ian McDiarmid (born August 11, 1944) is a Scottish actor born in Carnoustie in Tayside. He was educated at St Andrews University and the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow.

Star Wars

McDiarmid is mostly a stage actor, but in recent years has probably become best known for his appearances in Star Wars as Palpatine, the principal villain of the Star Wars universe. Palpatine is a cunning politician who eventually becomes ruler of the Galactic Empire. First playing the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, and then as a younger Senator and Chancellor Palpatine in Episodes I-III, he is one of the few actors who has depicted the same character in both of the Star Wars trilogies (as well as playing a younger version of the character as an older actor).

In the 2004 re-release of The Empire Strikes Back, 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 Revill for that scene and the face on the projector was that of a woman). With this addition to The Empire Strikes Back, McDiarmid has now appeared in at least one version of every film in which Palpatine appears.

He was a relatively unknown charismatic stage actor in his thirties when he was cast as the most powerful being in the Star Wars universe. He had previously achieved little recognition for his role, until 1999 when he was called back to reprise the role in the prequels. While other non-human roles, such as Yoda, R2-D2, C-3PO and eventually Chewbacca, were all played by their original actors, all the other human roles were recast with younger actors. McDiarmid has the distinction of being the only human actor to reprise his role, an opportunity that he attributes to having been so much younger than his character the first time he played the part. The prequels had him play two faces to his character. He re-created the character from Return of the Jedi when playing Darth Sidious, but created a different, more attractive, pleasant, and seductive character in playing Palpatine. While he had received some praise from fans, he received widespread attention for his expanded role in the prequels.

Theatrical Work

From 1990 until 2001, he and Jonathan Kent served as the artistic directors of the Almeida Theater, located in the Islington district of London.

One theatrical performance of note is his portrayal of the lead character Harry Hackamore in Sam Shepard's play Seduced. By McDiarmid's own description, Hackamore was a Howard Hughes-type character. To play the part, he was made-up in prosthetics, including a false beard and long fingernails, to resemble Hughes. McDiarmid was only 37 at the time, and this convinced George Lucas and Richard Marquand that he could convincingly play a much older character in extreme cinematic close-up, which helped him land the role of Palpatine.

Filmography

Theatrical movies

TV movies

Trivia

• Ian McDiarmid is the only known actor to have portrayed an older version of a character at a young age, and a younger version of a character at an older age. He did this when he portrayed Palpatine in the Star Wars films. He played the very old Palpatine in 1983's Return of the Jedi and the younger Palpatine in 1999's The Phantom Menace, 2002's Attack of the Clones, and 2005's Revenge of the Sith, which all took place before Return of the Jedi.

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