Who is Ian McDiarmid?
Ian McDiarmid studied for a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, but eventually found that his calling was in theatre. He went to the Royal Academy in Glasgow, where he received the prestigious gold medal for his work.
He now has a highly successful career as a theatre director, and from 1990 until his retirement in 2001, was Joint Artistic Director of London's Almeida Theatre in Islington. He and his co-director Jonathan Kent revived the Almeida and persuaded many Hollywood stars, including Kevin Spacey, Ralph Fiennes, and Anna Friel, to tread the boards in their humble theatre. They won the coveted London Evening Standard Award in 1998 for their efforts.
McDiarmid is also well known for his film and television appearances, and is perhaps most famous for his chilling performance as Emperor Palpatine in George Lucas's Star Wars films.
Trivia
- Based his character Emperor Palpatine's unusual voice on the Japanese method of using your stomach to project yourself. The result was a strange, guttural croak that Lucas decided was perfect for the character of Palpatine. In an earlier draft of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the Emperor was described as having a voice that was even deeper and more terrifying than Darth Vader's.
- He played an elderly, disfigured Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), and then went on to play a younger version of that character, some 20 years later, in the Star Wars prequels.
- Played Harry Hackamore, a Howard Hughes-type character, in the play, "Seduced", by Sam Shepard. This showed his ability to convincingly play, in close-up, a character much older than himself. This is what attracted the attention of George Lucas and Richard Marquand, who decided that he could play the Emperor in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), which was already in production at the time.
- In his portrayal of Emperor Palpatine, Ian McDiarmid has the honor of being the only actor ever to have played a character older than he was in his first portrayal in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), then played his character's younger self when he himself was older in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but playing his character's much older self when McDiarmid himself was also older in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), but then finally playing a younger (but still old) portrayal of his character in Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022).
- Has appeared with his drama school classmate Denis Lawson in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), and with Ewan McGregor in Karaoke (1996), Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).