Clive Revill obit

Clive Revill, Voice of the Emperor in ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ Dies at 94

Recruited to be an actor by Laurence Olivier, he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, earned two Tony nominations and appeared in a pair of Billy Wilder films.   

 He was not on the list.

Clive Revill, the New Zealand native who after being recruited to be an actor by Laurence Olivier starred on Broadway, appeared in two films for Billy Wilder and provided the original voice of the evil Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back, has died. He was 94.

Revill died March 11 at a care facility in Sherman Oaks after a battle with dementia, his daughter, Kate Revill, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The extremely versatile Revill played cops in Otto Preminger’s Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), starring Olivier, and Jack Smight’s Kaleidoscope (1966), starring Warren Beatty; not one but two characters (a Scotsman and an Arab) in Joseph Losey’s Modesty Blaise (1966); and a physicist investigating strange goings-on at a haunted mansion in John Hough’s The Legend of Hell House (1973), starring Roddy McDowall.

A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Revill also appeared seven times on Broadway and received Tony nominations for his turns in two musicals: as the Bar-des-Inquiets proprietor Bob-Le-Hotu in 1961’s Irma la Douce and as Fagin in 1963’s Oliver!

For Wilder, he portrayed a man representing a Russian ballerina in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) — his character is led to believe that Holmes (Robert Stephens) and Dr. Watson (Colin Blakely) are gay — and the besieged hotel manager Carlo in Avanti! (1972), which earned him a Golden Globe nom.

For Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980), director Irvin Kershner called upon Revill — the two had worked together on the 1966 film A Fine Madness — to record a couple of menacing lines in a Wilshire Boulevard studio in Los Angeles.

They would be used in the pivotal scene in which Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) communicates with the emperor (as a holographic projection).

Revill’s voice would be replaced on the 2004 DVD release of the film by Ian McDiarmid’s, who went on to play the character in Return of the Jedi (1983) and the franchise’s three prequels — but he had his fans nonetheless.

“They come up to me, and I tell them to get close and shut their eyes,” he said in a 2015 interview. “Then I say [in the emperor’s haunting voice], ‘There is a great disturbance in the Force.’ People turn white, and one nearly fainted!”

One of two sons, Clive Selsby Revill was born on April 18, 1930, in Wellington, New Zealand. His mother, Eleanor, was a homemaker and an opera singer, and his father, Malet, was a carpenter.

A great fan of Shakespeare, Revill was working as an actuary in a bank when he met Olivier and his wife, actress Vivien Leigh, who were on a tour of New Zealand. Olivier told him to come to his Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol to study acting, and Revill raised the money to make the trip to England in 1950.

He struggled away from home. “I had my doubts at one point when I thought, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t do this. I can’t find it within myself,’” Revill recalled in a 2017 interview. “I had a marvelous talk with a woman who was in charge of movement in school and she took me aside and said, ‘You’ve got to go back to within yourself and find the truth within yourself, and if you can find that truth, never, never, never lose it because it’s more than a ring on a finger. It’s the absolute, innermost line within your life and your spirit.’”

Revill regained his confidence and in 1952 made his Broadway debut in Mr. Pickwick, based on Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers. He then joined the RSC and in 1964 starred in a bathtub as Jean-Paul Marat alongside Patrick Magee as the Marquis de Sade in a production of Marat/Sade.

Revill returned to Broadway in 1967 to star as Sheridan Whiteside in the musical Sherry!, in 1971 to star as Max Beerbohm in The Incomparable Max, in 1975 to play Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes and in 1981 to star as Clare Quilty in Edward Albee’s adaptation of Lolita.

He could play all manner of ethnicities, and his big-screen body of work included The Double Man (1967), Fathom (1967), The Assassination Bureau (1969), A Severed Head (1970), The Black Windmill (1974), One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975), Zorro: The Gay Blade (1981), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) and The Queen of Spain (2016).

Revill portrayed an Irishman in 1978 on Peter Falk’s last episode of the original Columbo series and showed up on everything from Maude, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Remington Steele, Murder, She Wrote and Babylon 5 to Magnum, P.I., Newhart, MacGyver, Dear John, The Fall Guy and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

In addition to Emperor Palpatine, he played other Star Wars characters in video games and was Alfred the butler on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992.

Survivors also include his granddaughter, Kayla.

 

Film

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1956    Reach for the Sky            RAF Medical Orderly            Uncredited

1958    The Horse's Mouth            Art Student

1959    The Headless Ghost            Ambrose Dudley        

1965    Bunny Lake Is Missing            Sgt. Andrews         

1966    A Fine Madness            Dr. Menken           

Italian Secret Service Charles Harrison          

Kaleidoscope            Inspector McGinnis    

Modesty Blaise            McWhirter, Sheik Abu Tahir   

1967    Fathom            Serapkin         

The Double Man     Frank Wheatly           

1968            Nobody Runs Forever            Joseph 

The Shoes of the Fisherman            Tovarich Vucovich      

1969    The Assassination Bureau Cesare Spado 

1970    The Buttercup Chain   George

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes            Rogozhin         

A Severed Head            Alexander Lynch-Gibbon

1972    Avanti!            Carlo Carlucci            Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture

1973    The Legend of Hell House  Dr. Barrett 

1974    The Black Windmill            Alf Chestermann   

1975    One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing            Quon   

1976    The Great Houdini            Dundas Slater  

1980    The Empire Strikes Back    The Emperor          Voice; cameo (original theatrical release)

1981    Zorro, The Gay Blade            Garcia 

1986    The Transformers: The Movie            Kickback  Voice

The Frog Prince   King William

1987    Alice Through the Looking Glass            Snark, Goat            Voice

1993    The Thief and the Cobbler            King Nod          Voice; replaced Anthony Quayle

1995    Delta of Venus   Radio Announcer            Voice

2002    Return to Never Land            Elderly Officer, Narrator

2003    101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure            Additional voices

2004            Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas            Narrator

2012    Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse  King Richard, Referee

2016    The Queen of Spain            John Scott   

Television

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1957    The Adventures of Robin Hood            Horatio            Episode: "Too Many Earls"

1975            Churchill's People            King Henry II            Episode: "A Sprig of Broom"

1977    The New Avengers            Mark            Episode: "Dead Men are Dangerous"

1978            Columbo          Joe Devlin            Episode: "The Conspirators"

Centennial            Finlay Perkin  3 episodes

1982    Harts on their Toes            Zabin            1 episode

1983            Wizards and Warriors            Wizard Vector  8 episodes

1984    George Washington            Lord Loudoun            3 episodes

Snorks Dr. Galio Seaworthy            Voice, 65 episodes

1985, 1988            Murder, She Wrote            Jonathan Hawley, Bert Davies  2 episodes

1984    Alvin and the Chipmunks            Additional voices            13 episodes

The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show            Additional voices            Episode: "Happy Birthday, Scooby-Doo"

Dragon's Lair            Storyteller        Voice, episode: "Tale of the Enchanted Gift"

1984–1986            The Transformers            Kickback        Voice, 5 episodes

1986    The Twilight Zone            Agent            Episode: "Personal Demons"

Magnum PI            Walter "Inky" Gilbert            Episode: "I Never Wanted To Go to France, Anyway"

Pound Puppies            Dumas, Lord Belveshire            Voice, 2 episodes

1987    Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures            Additional voices            6 episodes

DuckTales            Shedlock Jones            Voice, episode: "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. McDuck"

The Law & Harry McGraw            Oscar Wendell            Episode: "She's Not Wild About Harry"

1989–1990            Paddington Bear            Additional voices            2 episodes

1990            Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone            Potsworth        Voice, 13 episodes

Tiny Toon Adventures            William Shakespeare            Voice, episode: "Weirdest Story Ever Told"

1991    Star Trek: The Next Generation            Sir Guy of Gisborne            Episode: "Qpid"

1991–1993            The Legend of Prince Valiant            The Mighty Om            Voice, 3 episodes

1992            Batman: The Animated Series   Alfred Pennyworth            Voice, 3 episodes

1993    The Little Mermaid            Sorcerer Blowfish            Voice, 2 episodes

The Sea Wolf            Thomas C. "Cookie" Mugridge         

1994            Babylon 5       Trakis            Episode: "Born to the Purple"

1995            Freakazoid!            Spanger, Baffeardin, Hermil Sioro            Voice, 3 episodes

1996    Murphy Brown            Hendricks            Episode: “When a Lansing Loves a Woman”; Season 8, Episode 21

Adventures from the Book of Virtues            King Midas, Minister            Voice, episode: "Self-Discipline"

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest            Hunter No. 1, Trench Harpooner, Medical Officer            Voice, 2 episodes

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman            Sorcerer            Episode: "Soul Mates"

1997    Step by Step            Professor Robert Nesler            Episode: "Talking Trash"

Johnny Bravo            W            Voice, episode: "Bravo, James Bravo"

1998    Pinky and the Brain            King Claudius            Episode: "Melancholy Brain"

Godzilla: The Series   Hustus McPhil Voice, episode: "DeadLoch"

1999    Oh Yeah! Cartoons            Herb            Voice, episode: "Herb"

2002            Fillmore!         Shop Owner  1 episode

2004    All Grown Up!            Moderator      Voice, episode: "Susie's Choice"

2011–2012            Secret Mountain Fort Awesome            Helmet Head, Wise One      Voice, 3 episodes

Video games

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1993    Star Wars: X-Wing            General Dodonna            

1995    The Jungle Book            Bagheera        

1996    Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter            Imperial Officer #2            Credited as Clive Revel

2001            Conquest: Frontier Wars            Hawkes          

2003    The Hobbit  Thorin Oakenshield            

2004    The Bard's Tale                  

2006    Gothic 3          Rhobar            English dub

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance            Doctor Doom   

2007    Jeanne d'Arc    Duke of Bedford            English dub

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End            British Officers           

2009            Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen            Jetfire            

2011    Star Wars: The Old Republic            Admiral Davos, Admiral Riserre, Darth Gravus

Other

Peter Pan's Flight (1955)

Stage credits (partial)

Year     Title            Role            Theatre            Notes

1950    Twelfth Night            Sebastian                    

1952    Mr. Pickwick            Sam Weller            Plymouth Theatre        

1955    Listen to the Wind            Pearson          Arts Theatre

1957    The Tempest            Trinculo          Theatre Royal, Drury Lane    

Toad of Toad Hall      Ratty   

1958–1960            Irma La Douce  Bob-Le-Hotu            Lyric Theatre

1960–1961            Plymouth Theatre            Nominated – Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical

1962    The Mikado            Ko-Ko            Sadler's Wells Theatre  

1963–1964            Oliver!            Fagin            Imperial Theatre            Nominated – Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical

1964            Marat/Sade    Jean-Paul Marat            Royal Shakespeare Company        

The Jew of Malta            Barabas          

1967    Sherry!            Sheridan Whiteside            Alvin Theatre

1968–1969            The Unknown Soldier and His Wife     The General            Chichester Festival Theatre

The Tempest            Caliban

1969    A Who's Who of Flapland                       Royal Court Theatre  

Theatre Upstairs           

1971    The Incomparable Max     Max Beerbohm            Royale Theatre

1974–1976            Sherlock Holmes            Professor James Moriarty            Broadhurst Theatre            Replacement

1981    Lolita            Clare Quilty   Brooks Atkinson Theatre

1981–1982            The Pirates of Penzance            Major-General Stanley            Tour    

1988    Drood            William Cartwright, Your Chairman