Ian McDiarmid

For other uses, see Ian.

"I first encountered Emperor Palpatine at Elstree Studios in the early 1980s. He was staring back at me from a make-up mirror, larger than life and 50 times as ugly. Yellow contact lenses stung my eyes and afforded little peripheral vision. As I walked onto a vast sound stage that had been transformed into a starship hangar, populated by seemingly endless platoons of gleaming white stormtroopers, the scale of George Lucas's vision hit me. This was space spectacle, a back-drop for a space opera of Wagnerian dimension."

―Ian McDiarmid^[2]

Ian McDiarmid (born August 11, 1944^[1]) portrayed Palpatine/Darth Sidious in the Star Wars films. He appears in every film of the prequel trilogy, as well as in Return of the Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. He is one of the three actors to have appeared in all three Star Wars trilogies along with Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO). He did not play the Emperor in the original release of The Empire Strikes Back, but was edited in for the 2004 DVD release of the original trilogy and subsequent releases. McDiarmid also worked with George Lucas on the 1992 television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, in which McDiarmid portrayed Professor Levi in the episode "Paris, October 1916."

McDiarmid reprised his role in one scene in the sixth episode of the Obi-Wan Kenobi television series.^[3] His scene was filmed against a blue screen. Director Deborah Chow told him to film his scene between being on an edge and having some lines be more casual. McDiarmid struggled with remembering to use the word "execute" during filming.^[4]

McDiarmid has also had a distinguished career in British theatre, working as Associate Artistic Director for the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester (1986–1989), joint Artistic Director at London's Almedia Theatre (1990–2002) and as a Board Member of the National Theatre of Scotland. Recent and upcoming projects include a return to the role of Teddy in Brian Friel's Faith Healer (for which he won a Tony award) and in the world premiere of Robert Holman's Jonah & Otto, which marks his return to the Royal Exchange.

Works

Filmography

Year	Title	Series	Contribution(s)	Notes
1983	Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi		Emperor
1999	Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace		Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious
2002	Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones		Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious
2004	Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back		Emperor	Re-released version of the film on DVD
2005	Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith		Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious
2005	Star Wars: A Musical Journey		Host
2015	Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens		Darth Sidious	Archive audio (uncredited)
2018	"Wolves and a Door"	Star Wars Rebels	Emperor Palpatine
2018	"A World Between Worlds"	Star Wars Rebels	Emperor Palpatine
2018	"Family Reunion – and Farewell"	Star Wars Rebels	Emperor Palpatine
2019	Star Wars Rebels: The Siege of Lothal	Star Wars Rebels	Emperor	Voiced by Sam Witwer in the 2015 original
2019	Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker		Emperor Palpatine^[5]
2020	"Shattered"	Star Wars: The Clone Wars	Darth Sidious	Archive audio
2021	"Aftermath"	Star Wars: The Bad Batch	Darth Sidious	Archive audio
2022	"Part I"	Obi-Wan Kenobi	Darth Sidious	Archive audio (uncredited)
2022	"Part VI"	Obi-Wan Kenobi	Emperor Palpatine
2022	"The Sith Lord"	Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi	Darth Sidious
2023	"Truth and Consequences"	Star Wars: The Bad Batch	Emperor Palpatine
2024	"Shadows of Tantiss"	Star Wars: The Bad Batch	Emperor Palpatine