Ian Mc Diarmid - Star Wars

Star Wars

After a minor part in the film Dragonslayer, McDiarmid was cast by George Lucas in Return of the Jedi as Emperor Palpatine, the principal villain. Sixteen years after appearing in Return of the Jedi, he reprised the role as the character's younger incarnation of Senator Palpatine and Sith Lord Sidious in the prequel films: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith .

The prequels had him play two faces to his character; he re-created his diabolical interpretation of Palpatine from Return of the Jedi when playing Darth Sidious, the Chancellor's Sith alter ego, but created an attractive, pleasant and seductive character in Palpatine's public persona. While he had previously achieved little recognition for this role, due to the extensive prosthetics used for the character which made him unrecognizable, he received widespread attention and critical acclaim for his expanded role in the prequels.

In the 2004 re-release of The Empire Strikes Back, a brief scene between Darth Vader and a hologram of Emperor Palpatine was updated to include McDiarmid. The Emperor was originally voiced by Clive Revill for that scene, and visually portrayed by Elaine Baker, the wife of make-up designer Rick Baker. With this addition to The Empire Strikes Back, McDiarmid has now appeared in every film version in which Palpatine appears.

He has also worked with the Star Wars Expanded Universe as the voice of Palpatine in the video games: Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and its sequel Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, the video game versions of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and most recently Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron. McDiarmid made a small appearance during Celebration Europe, but on August 23–26, 2012, he attended Celebration VI in Orlando, Florida and had his own show titled The Phantom Menace: Ian McDiarmid, hosted by James Arnold Taylor, in which he talked about his experience working on Star Wars and how he landed the role of Palpatine.