By [ad_1]
Though Darth Vader has a slight edge when it comes to cultural impact, his master is still the undisputed king of Star Wars villains. Across his 40+ year history, the villain of the 9-episode saga has been known by many names: Darth Sidious, Palpatine, or simply The Emperor.
He’s also been played by more than a few different actors, in both live-action and animation. Each one of them brought something distinct to the table.
7 The Emperor Debuted By Being Voiced By Clive Revill, Played By Marjorie Eaton
The Emperor receives only a few offhand mentions in Star Wars, and said mentions indicate little beyond the obvious that the Empire has a ruler. It wasn’t until The Empire Strikes Back that the Emperor makes his first, semi-physical appearance.
George Lucas originally conceived of Palpatine as a weak-willed puppet king controlled by his advisors and the Empire’s military brass, as an analog for how Lucas viewed the relationship between Richard Nixon and the US Military-Industrial complex. This interpretation survived long enough to make it into Alan Dean Foster’s Star Wars novelization, but Palpatine’s brief appearance in Empire showed how quickly plans can change.
The Emperor is the first character whom Darth Vader shows reverence towards and Vader is visibly dwarfed by his Master’s holographic visage. The Emperor’s first line “there is a great disturbance in the Force” also makes it clear that he is as much a student of the dark side as his disciple.
For this brief scene, the Emperor was portrayed by a heavily made-up Marjorie Eaton (the eyes of a Chimpanzee superimposed on her face) with a voice dubbed by Clive Revill, his delivery devoid of emotion or even inflection. While this Palpatine prototype has some of the trademarks down—the dissonance between his physical frailty and great power, to the uncertainty if he’s even human—it’s still very much a test run.
6 Ian McDiarmid Embodies The Character Of Palpatine In A Way Few Actors Manage
Ian McDiarmid voiced Satan in a 1992 audio adaptation of Paradise Lost. However, Star Wars fans would argue that the Scottish actor has played the Devil many more times before and after, thanks to his (for better or worse) career-defining role as The Emperor.
Lucas’ decision to end Star Wars as a trilogy necessitated the Emperor making his in-person debut in the finale, Return Of The Jedi. The original choice was Alan Webb, but when he bowed out due to a nasty flu, Lucas and director Richard Marquand chose McDiarmid as the replacement. The pair had been impressed by McDiarmid’s stage performance in Seduced, especially with how he managed to act through prosthetics.
To say it worked out is an understatement; McDiarmid fits the role like a glove. Indeed, he delivered the most crucial part of Palpatine’s presence: his voice. Lucas originally wanted McDiarmid to replicate Revill’s flat intonations, but he was quickly won over by McDiarmid’s raspy, echoing drawl and inhuman cackle, a perfect complement to his character’s wrinkled, toad-like appearance. To quote the man himself, “I looked at the face, and the voice followed.”
McDiarmid was only 38 when he first played the Emperor, which meant he was the perfect age to reprise a younger version of the role in the Prequel Trilogy. His Return Of The Jedi turn is iconic enough, but it’s the prequels that solidified McDiarmid as Alpha and Omega of Palpatine performers. He holds himself back for the first two and a half films with the charm of a serpentine and sinister flavor; this makes his full-tilt turn towards glorious camp in Revenge Of The Sith‘s latter half all the more satisfying.
While Palpatine’s return in The Rise Of Skywalker has drawn much ire, even the harshest critics don’t have anything bad to say about McDiarmid.
5 Nick Jameson Voiced Palpatine In Some Early Animation & Video Games
Tie-in media and merchandise have been essential to Star Wars from the very beginning. During the early 2000s, Nick Jameson was the go-to Palpatine voice for Star Wars media, as they couldn’t afford Ian McDiarmid. Jameson voiced Darth Sidious in a handful of video games (Battlefront I & II, Bounty Hunter, and Revenge Of The Sith), but his most notable turn as the Dark Lord Of The Sith was in Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars.
Here, Jameson voiced both sides of the character, “Chancellor Palpatine” and “Darth Sidious.” Like McDiarmid before him, Jameson made sure to differentiate the two, even if his overall performance never transcended “understudy.”
4 Ian Abercrombie Was The First Voice Of Palpatine On The Clone Wars
McDiarmid excels at Palpatine due to how he can portray both the character’s mask and his true self equally convincingly. It’s a testament to his range that he sells both “kind, grandfatherly mentor” and “insane super-villain,” much less how he takes those two halves and makes them feel like a complete person.
Some of Palpatine’s other actors aren’t quite as convincing. One is the late Ian Abercrombie, who voiced Palpatine in The Clone Wars prior to his passing in 2012. Abercrombie definitely felt more at home playing Palpatine’s mask, and while his Sidious wasn’t bad, he was still scarier when he was cloaking his menace versus being upfront about it.
3 After Abercrombie’s Passing, Tim Curry Filled In
After Abercrombie passed, The Clone Wars recruited Tim Curry to voice Palpatine for portions of Seasons 5 and 6. In many ways, Curry’s performance was the opposite of Abercrombie’s. While Abercrombie felt more natural when he was amiable and kindly, Curry excelled at playing the sadistic relish of Darth Sidious, but wasn’t so convincing as Chancellor Palpatine.
There’s also another matter; Curry may have simply been too famous for the role. His voice is one of the most distinctive in acting, and so whenever he speaks, one’s first thought isn’t “Palpatine” but rather “Tim Curry.” So while his turn as Palpatine is a good, sometimes even scary performance, it’s still difficult to accept it as Palpatine
2 Sam Witwer Does A Dead-On McDiarmid Impression
Sam Witwer’s most famous Star Wars roles are Darth Maul and Galen Marek/”Starkiller.” However, the actor also does an impressive Palpatine impression, one that he’s gotten to use in some official media. He first did so in The Force Unleashed, playing both hero and villain thanks to his dual roles as Starkiller and Palpatine.
Witwer is a truly dedicated Star Wars fan, and so developed some ad-libs to better reflect the Emperor’s personality. In particular, for one monologue (“You will be interrogated. Tortured. You will give me the names of your friends and allies…”), he added a perfectly sadistic kicker: “…and then you will die” (delivered with a smirk).
While The Force Unleashed has been relegated to Legends continuity, Witwer had a brief chance to voice Palpatine in canon media; in Star Wars Rebels, he voiced the Emperor for an unseen cameo in Season 2 premiere, “The Siege Of Lothal.” When Palpatine was recast in Season 4 of Rebels with McDiarmid, no fans were happier than Witwer himself.
1 Robert Martin Klein & Trevor Duvall Have Voiced Palpatine In LEGO Star Wars Animations
LEGO Star Wars began as an (awesome) video game, but the mini-franchise has branched out into animation. Several of these specials have featured the Emperor, with Robert Martin Klein and Trevor Duvall being among those who’ve supplied his voice.
Given the humorous, parodic tone of these specials, it’s inherently difficult for these actors to leave the same mark on Palpatine in the way actors in canon productions have. That said, there’s still plenty of room for this sort of comedy in the franchise, especially since, in George Lucas’ own words, Star Wars‘ target audience is children.
About The Author
[ad_2]
