Marjorie Eaton - The Original Emperor

ATMachine is right. We have another lost Emperor from the trilogy.

Here's Webb in the Great Train Robbery from 1978. Already well into his 70s, I assume his makeup would have been similar to Eaton's with a large prosthetic piece covering the forehead and eyes.

Not sure of the logic behind the re-casting, but Ian McDiarmid turned out to be perfect. I guess it was like with Sebastian Shaw; age seems to be one of the last things taken into consideration when casting a character. That being said, the impressive makeup transformation was the last step to bringing the character to life.

 

Speaking of early Emperor makeups: I realized recently that the facial prosthetics used for Orrimaarko (Prune Face) in the Rebel briefing room in ROTJ might have been originally meant as a test makeup of sorts for Palpatine:



When this makeup was rejected in favor of the final facial appliance use for Palpatine, it's likely that rather than throw away this early effort, the makeup team repurposed it as a Rebel alien. Just add an orange skin tint and an eyepatch to disguise the facial features, and hey presto!

 

that's tragic :/
now i feel bad for making fun of his eyeballs.

 

Man, I can totally see that. It's even more similar to the ESB makeup with the bulging yellow eyes. I think this totally warrants further investigation.

Also of note, here's a poster for Empire painted by the late Noriyoshi Ohrai, interesting that it's the only ESB-era promotional work that shows the original Emperor. Fabulous stuff.

 

I think they were trying to keep the Emperor a mystery and a surprise for first-time viewers of ESB and ROTJ. Once ROTJ was out of theaters, the ROTJ Emperor became a frequent sight in promotional material.

 

That's true. Ohrai's Return of the Jedi poster featured an unmasked Vader front and center, which definitely wouldn't have gone down in the US.

 

I'm curiois as to whether Clive Revill's monotone, emotionless voice was non-acting or deliberate creepiness.

 

I think it was deliberate. You can see the actor in other roles and he is not typically monotone or emotionless.

 

Probably deliberate, but I don't think he gave it too much thought to the character.... He was probably brought to the studio one morning, given the lines, a few instructions... and left about an hour later.

 

He said in an interview, "I read the lines multiple times, each with different emotions. It sounded best when I read it without any emotions."

 

So you already had the answer to your question?
Anyway, no more than an hour to record four lines multiple times.
(J.E. Jones recorded his lines as Vader for ANH in a morning)

 

"sounded best" doesn't mean "intentional creepiness". There's many reasons for which they could have decided that it was the "best" reading

 

I wonder who exactly decided it "sounded best" to use the least emotional takes of Revill's dialogue. Revill himself, Kersh, or Lucas?

 

I'm another who is okay with the visual change but prefers strongly the original scripting.

 

People in this thread might be interested in listening to the latest episode of the podcast I Was There Too:

http://www.earwolf.com/episode/the-empire-strikes-back-with-clive-revill/

 

After the above podcast episode, there's a mini-episode follow-up which involved Pablo Hidalgo clearing it up - yes, it was Marjorie Eaton and not Elaine Baker who was Palpatine in ESB.

http://www.earwolf.com/episode/bonus-episode-the-empire-strikes-back-controversy-averted/

 

OG Emperor was quite silly looking, that change was necessary. Ian McDiarmid is just legendary in that role!

 

redlightning asked

Does anyone know of any artwork which shows this version of the Emperor more clearly and not in holographic form?



(^ featured in the Star Wars Chronicles)



Originally, when the Emperor turned out to look different in ROJ than in ESB, it merely seemed to emphasize Kenobi's statement from the ANH novelization where he talked about the "corrupt emperors" (i.e. more than one).

But what this thread has also revealed, IMHO, is that back in 1979 there were apparently no serious plans for the Emperor to return in 1983. To me that's hardly surprising because, IIRC, Gary Kurtz had communicated that the Emperor's first appearance in the flesh was originally scheduled for Episode IX.

 

Supercalifragilisticexpiialidarkside! If you get just mad enough it might just win you over

Supericalifragilisticexpialidarkside give in to your anger and you'll reach your full potential

 

Nice find! I wonder if Cio-Cio is the actual name of the chimp.

Anyways, I'm glad this "mystery" has finally been closed. I see it's since been corrected on Wookiepedia. Looks like this very thread was used as evidence in the discussion:
https://www.ottoradio.com/podcast/i-was-there-too/the-empire-strikes-back-with-clive-revill-54

Again, all thanks to Don Bies for actually bringing this information to light.

 

Just revisiting this thread as it's Rick Baker's b-day today and he recently posted on Instagram that the 1980 prosthetics for Majorie's Emperor were sculpted by Phil Tippet. Here's an image of Rick applying the make up.

And, yes, I still prefer the original 1980 ESB Emperor to anything after.

Thanks for all the information everyone!

 

Honestly, I can't believe I posted my last post in this thread, I'm embarrased.

About the Emperor, I think Revill's lack of emotion added to the mystery of Palpatine necessary for such an early appearance. It is interesting to imagine him reprising the role in the next film and the prequels, but McDiarmid was the perfect choice (I'm surprised he isn't in very much else). Now that we've seen McDiarmid's version and know all there is to be revealed in the films, I think McDiarmid in TESB was the right thing to do, with the original version still available (the one I usually watch)

 

McDiarmid's first film role since ROTS was last year's very good The Lost City of Z, where true to form, he played a aristocratic promoter of the empire and its values in a film that was fairly critical of imperialism.

 

I know he's a stage actor first and foremost, but I wish Ian would be in more films.

 

I saw Ian play the lead role in Berthold Brecht's Galileo in Stratford Upon Avon a few years ago - he was very good. At one point Galileo talks about the dark side of the moon - Ian said 'Dark Side' in the Emperor's voice, clearly as a little shout out to any Star Wars fans in attendance. Thought that was great.

I like both his and the Eaton/Revill Emperor. Watching the Revill performance on youtube, it's clear that his delivery and intonation had a large influence on Ian's RotJ version of the role, which goes to show how good the initial work on the character was. Imagine how different the Saga would have been had that one minor role been done differently! Totally different character, history, backstory potentially.