Sad news arrives today as we learn that Michael Pennington, the actor behind the understandably nervous Moff Jerjerrod from the opening scenes of Return of the Jedi, has passed away. He was 82, and leaves behind an impressive body of work which includes co-founding the English Shakespeare Company in 1986 and serving as its Joint Artistic Director until 1992, being recognised as an Honorary Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and starring on stage and screen in such classiscs as Richard II, The Tempest, Love’s Labours Lost and much of the Shakespeare library, as well as roles on the big screen as Michael Foot in The Iron Lady opposite Meryl Streep, and on TV in Callan, The Return of Sherlock Holmes and much more besides.
Born Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington in Cambridge on 7th June 1943 to parents Vivian Maynard Cecil Pennington and Euphemia Willock, he grew up in London and was educated at Marlborough College, becoming a member of the National Youth Theatre and reading English at Trinity College, Cambridge. From there, a career on stage that began in 1961 at the National Youth Theater in a production of Richard II, and onwards into a stellar career that saw him arrive in the GFFA in 1982 to film Episode VI.
To his family, friends, coilleagues and fans, our sincerest condelences on the loss of one of the sagas true gentlemen.
