Clive Revill

Clive Revill (born April 18, 1930) is a New Zealand character actor best known for his performances in musical theatre and on the London stage. He was the original voice of Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back before being replaced by Ian McDiarmid in the Special Edition DVD. He voices Jan Dodonna in the Star Wars: X-Wing Collector's edition. He also voice an Imperial Officer in Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. In Star Wars: The Old Republic he voiced Layek Davos, Riserre and Darth Gravus.

BiographyEdit

Early life and stage careerEdit

Revill was born in Wellington, New Zealand, the son of Eleanor May and Malet Barford Revill. He originally trained to be an accountant in his homeland of New Zealand, but decided to change his career path in 1950 when he made his stage debut as Sebastian in Twelfth Night. He then moved to England, where he appeared in The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company's celebrated 1956–1958 season of productions, which included Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest.

He made his Broadway debut in 1952, playing Mr. Pickwick in The Pickwick Papers, and went on to appear in Irma La Douce, The Incomparable Max, and Oliver!. He is also known for his roles in the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, on both stage and television. He also participated in the workshop production of Tom Jones The Musical, playing the role of Squire Western and reprising it on the cast recording.

Film careerEdit

His ginger hair and distinctive features often saw him cast as comic eccentrics in a number of British films of the 1960s and 1970s such as Kaleidoscope (1966), Modesty Blaise (1966), Fathom (1967), The Assassination Bureau (1969), and One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975). Often cast as humorous foreign characters (he has played everything from Chinese to Russian), two of his most notable roles in this capacity were in films for Billy Wilder: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), and Avanti! (1972), for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for his part as harassed hotel manager Carlo Carlucci.