People.com
Michael Pennington, the actor known for his six-decade career in British theater as well as roles in Star Wars and The Iron Lady, has died. He was 82 years old.
Pennington's agent, Lesley Duff, released a statement to The Guardian, stating, “After a long and wonderful life and career, Michael Pennington died peacefully in the early hours of Thursday 7 May at Denville Hall.” PEOPLE has reached out for confirmation.
Born in Cambridge, England, in 1943 and raised in London, Pennington became a member of the National Youth Theatre and studied English at Trinity College. He launched his acting career as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, alternating London stage shows with guest roles in British television series from the late 1960s through the 1970s.
According to The Telegraph, it was a stage production of Macbeth that first inspired him to pursue acting, foreshadowing a career largely built on the works of William Shakespeare.
In a 2015 joint interview in The Independent with frequent costar, Dame Judi Dench, Pennington also cited the actress as "one of the reasons I went into theatre" after seeing her in a 1957 production
In 1986, Pennington joined Michael Bogdanov in co-founding and running the English Shakespeare Company, which exclusively presented the works of the Bard. He participated in screen adaptations of Shakespeare as well, including 1969's Nicol Williamson-led (starring Anthony Hopkins) Hamlet. Pennington starred onstage in the tragedy about the Danish prince several times, and wrote multiple books on Shakespeare.
On the big screen, he played Moff Jerjerrod in 1983's Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi — the character known for telling Darth Vader that the Emperor "asks the impossible" — and Michael Foot in 2011's The Iron Lady opposite Meryl Streep.
BBC
11th May 2026
Stage and screen actor Michael Pennington has died at the age of 82, his representatives have confirmed.
Best known as Death Star Commander Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the actor was an accomplished Shakespearean and is listed as an Honorary Associate Artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He also co-founded the English Shakespeare Company alongside theatre director Michael Bogdanov
Actress Miriam Margolyes led tributes to Pennington, describing him as a "very fine actor, brilliant, wise, clear."
She said he was "an old friend, from Cambridge [University] days", adding: "I am sad beyond measure. Bless your dear memory , old chum."
Born Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington on June 7, 1943, in Cambridge, England, the actor's on-screen career began in 1965 with a supporting part in the BBC mini-series, The War of the Roses.
He went on to have more than 70 screen roles across his career, including starring opposite actress Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, for which she won her third Academy Award for best actress.
Pennington took on an array of roles throughout his career, including playing Moff Jerjerrod in Star Wars: Episode VI
The English actor was also known for his collaboration with Dame Judi Dench and her husband, Michael Williams, and they starred in several stage productions together, including King Lear.
In an interview with the Independent in 2015, Pennington said watching Dench play Ophelia in a 1957 Hamlet production in London inspired him to go into the theatre.
"There's no one quite like Judi. For her acting is playing: she's a lass unparalleled," he told the paper.
Pennington also had roles in several BBC productions, including The Witches of Pendle, Oedipus The King and an adaptation of Middlemarch.
His last credited role was in 2022, when he voiced The Trust in five episodes of sci-fi series Raised by Wolves.
Daily Mail, 14th May 2026
Thespian Michael Peninngton, who has died at the age of 82, regularly played Judi Dench’s husband or lover onstage including in Peter Shaffer’s The Gift of the Gorgan. But performances didn’t always go smoothly ‘Once he ate a lot of garlic before a love scene,’ Judi recalled. ‘I think I punched him for that.’
Note:
Also appeared together in:
King Lear
The Way of the World
Filumena
The Winter’s Tale