Actor Clive Revill Dead At 94

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Actor Clive Revill, who provided the voice of Emperor Palpatine in the film Star Wars: Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back, died at the age of 94 earlier this month at the age of March 11 at a care facility in Sherman Oaks, California, the Hollywood Reporter reports.

Revill, a New Zealand native, was reported to have been battling dementia prior to his death. The versatile actor was a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a two-time Tony Award nominee for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Irma La Douce and Best Actor in a Musical for Oliver!

Revill was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Carlo Carlucci in the 1972 film Avanti!

Revill is arguably best remembered for lending his voice to the villainous Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode V -- The Empire Strikes Back, which included the iconic line "There is a great disturbance in the Force," which he claimed took three takes to record.

"It's just seven words, but those words encompass the absolute idea," Revill told the Dallas Observer in 2017. "From this character who came from somewhere was the essence of that somewhere. To this place, this lump of grubby rock where everyone's just walking about and smashing each other, and it wasn't what he thought could happen and why did he do that? Because he had an idea. Anybody can throw rocks at each other or pull a trigger, but it didn't drive him. It was there within him and he used that thing to change the quintessence of the idea."

Revill is also credited for roles in Bunny Lake is Missing, Kaleidoscope and Modesty Blaise, among others.


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