John Dicks



John Dicks is an actor who played an Imperial officer on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

John Dicks was born in London on July, 1947 (the 2nd or the 3rd, or even the 23rd of July, depending on the source). He began his career on 1972 by acting at the Northcott Theatre (Exeter) in William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

He would have to wait until 1975 to debut on the screen. He did one guest appearances as a waiter on TV series Softly Softly, plus a small appearance in Stephen Frears' TV movie Three Men in a Boat, starring Tim Curry. He also reached the silver screen with Richard Loncraine's Flame.

However, for the rest of the 1970s, Dicks' appearances were scarce, to say something. He, however, acted in radio series Patriots Three.

On 1980, however, Dicks acted in two important places. Firstly, he acted in the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in Martin Duncan's Amusing Spectacle of Cinderella and Her Naughty-Naughty Sisters: A Family Pantomime. It was his role that of Pearl, the main and mean naughty-naughty sister.

He also appeared on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. His was just a short cameo as an Imperial officer, commanding the star destroyer Tyrant. Expanded Universe gave him the name of Captain Lennox, while the movie credits only named him "Imperial Officer".

During the early 1980s, Dicks continued a discrete career on mini-series (Giuliano Montaldo's Marco Polo, 1982) or TV movies (Jim Goddard's Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil, 1985), only occassionally reaching mainstream movies (Frank Cvitanovich's The First Kangaroos, where he played a priest).

He also acted on theatre, particularly at the Royal Shakespearean Theatre and The Barbican Theatre, acting in The Comedy of Errors on 1983 and 1984, respectively.

On 1989, he had his first chance to direct at theatre, in the Griffin Theatre Company, Sydney, with the play Sons of Cain.

On 1991, he returned to cinema playing a new priest on John Duigan's Flirting, featuring a young Nicole Kidman, and also with long-awaited sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon. He appeared that same year on a mini-series, The Gravy Train Goes East.

For the remaining 1990s, Dicks could only appear in guest appearances in TV series like Time Trax, Snowy River or Law of the Land, where he played a recurrent character in the second season. He was also one of the main cast members of series Mercury, starring Geoffrey Rush.

Dicks returned to cinema only once more, for Anne Rice's adaptation Queen of the Damned (2002), acting as one of the Talamascans.

Since then, Dicks has moved to Israel, where he acted on 2004 in the Haifa English Theatre (Haifa) in two different plays (Cemetery Club and A Party to Murder), and directed two other plays (Do Not Go Gentle and Farndale Townwomen's Guild Dramatic Society Murder Mystery).