Emperor in Empire Strikes Back ***why didn't the original actor appear in ROTJ

Who was the original actor who played the emperor in Empire Strikes Back? Why didn't he appear in ROTJ?

 

It was actually a "she" and I cant' remember her name.

 

Her name was Clive Revil and the reason she didn't come back for Jedi is because it would have been really wierd and creepy if the Emperor suddenly had breasts.

 

Did Lucas originally want a female Emperor?

 

I read somewhere that the Emperor in ESB was actually Alec Guiness with makeup, and the whole "old woman in prothetics" story came about to cover it.

 

yeah emperor did look like kenobi

 

Empire Strikes Back emperor looked like he had this tumor growing on his eyeball or something

 

I think it's likely because Lucas never intended for him/her to be cast in the role of the emperor. ESB was a one-shot moment just to establish the face and existence of the emperor, but the real casting done for the role wasn't performed until ROTJ. It's like with the unmasking of Vader. Sebastian Shaw was the assumed face underneath it, but I doubt he was cast until the last movie.

 

It was an old woman with chimp (or monkey, whatever) eyes superimposed over the top. In the '80s, ILM didn't have the correct ChimpLady software to replicate the performance in ROTJ, but look for it in an upcoming re-release!

 

Clive Revil was just the voice of the Emperor, and he is a male. I have no clue who actually played the Emperor in ESB, though.

 

I miss the "Yes.... Yes..." part. It's still there but I've heard better.

Argh.

Not that it made much of a difference, but I assumed the emp just had grown older looking or had alien abilities that made him able to change his face, either that or the asteroid field really mucked up the transmission.

 

I always assumed that between the time of ESB and ROTJ, the Emperor's body had been steadily more corrupted by the dark side. It jived well with the whole clone thing of the EU.

 

yeah emperor did look like kenobi

The plot thickens...

Was Kenobi really evil? Did he want Luke to turn to the dark side? Was he really a hermit Jedi or a spy for the Empire? Was 'Old Ben' the mastermind behind it all?

 

I don't know if some of you have looked in the Google Groups archives for those old Usenet Star Wars discussions, but in one of the pre-ROTJ ones people were talking exactly about that, that they thought the Emperor looked like Obi-Wan, and of course they assumed that was significant. Some of the crazy theories posted there would fit right in today, I imagine.

 

The original actor, Chimps McBanana aka "The Chimperor", complained that only his eyes were used in ESB and that he wasn't credited. He also wanted a massive increase in salary for ROTJ to an entire bunch of bananas rather than just one. He wanted the old lady to join in his protest, but she would hear nothing of it. Sadly, Chimps died about a year after filming ESB. Hence, one only sees "Clive Revill - Voice of Emperor" in the credits.

Edit: Spelling

 

I'm personally of the opinion that it was Alec under the makeup and opted to go uncredited. The curl of the lips and the smile are very similar. I don't see why it couldn't be Alec.

 

question here since ive never seen the original episode 5. how good/bad did the emperor look?

 

Can anyone post a pic? I completely forgot what he looked like now that I only have SE version.

 

GO HERE
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews3/starwarschanges02.html

 

Ahh right, thanks. Doesn't look too much like Guiness in that photo tho...

 

the wierd thing was when ROTJ came out in the theatre..
I was about 15 and i remember me and my friends actually saying out loud "Thats not what the emperor looked like in ESB" it was quite a topic of discussion but back then there was no theforce.net to speculate as to why this was done. LOL