Marjorie Eaton - The Original Emperor

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

 

I don't think any photographs exist other than what our friends just unearthed. But perhaps there is some artwork somewhere that depicts the Emperor in TESB. We've seen some for ROTJ, but perhaps a making of book about TESB shows Vader bowing before the Emperor. It would be interesting.

 

When you first saw ESB, were you surprised that Vader has a master?

 

I know I was! This huge, spectral figure with the weird face and eyes telling Vader what to do was quite a surprise. Of course I knew there was an Emperor; he was referred to in ANH and is described in the opening passages of the first film's novelization, which I read in 1979. But no one could have guessed he was a creepy Force-user with yellow eyes! And that deep voice... creepy as all hell for an 11-year-old kid who was still afraid of the idea of demons.

 

Presumably acting as a stand-in for preliminary makeup tests. Majel Barrett did the same for Susan Oliver's character in the first Star Trek pilot.

 

There are some Ralph McQuarrie sketches for the Emperor's hologram n ESB.
EDIT: darklordoftech beat me to it.

 

Interesting to read this. A woman with prosthetics and monkey eyes is an odd choice though. As a kid I noticed the difference between ESB Emperor and ROTJ Emperor but the differences weren't big enough to bother me. I was more concerned with how different Luke looked from ANH to ESB!

 

Heheh, I'm not anti-prequel, just anti-palpatine.

 

The original Emperor was creepy and scared me as a kid. Ian's version is just fine too. A logical alteration.

 

I wonder if they should have simply touched up Eaton to look like McDiarmid.

 

What I don't understand is why Elaine Baker was even linked to the role?

 

She did makeup tests.

 

So cute! What was his name? We need him credited in TESB credits! He's a part of SW history!

 

For the most part, but when he says "it seems in your anger, you killed her", it looks like it's 1983.

 

Ian McDiarmid looks more like Ian McDiarmid than Marjorie Eaton does. At every single moment in every single scene. Full stop.

I feel like I've landed on Bizarro World.

 

Yeah. I appreciated the angles and lightning toward the end of ROTS. It meshes with the beginning of ROTJ. Sidious is incredibly nasty.

 

i remember staring at the Emperor's hologram for what feels like (and might actually literally add up to) hours as a kid, trying to figure out just what it was i was seeing. quite possibly just because it's so ingrained in my mind i still prefer it to the Darth Sidious substitution.

 

Palpatine in Sith looks closest to his portrayal in Jedi when he is wearing black robes that keep most of his face in the dark (from the moment he arrives in Mustafar until the end). The other robes he uses show more of his face than ever, which is slightly different and more bloated than in Jedi (we also see many more close-up shots), and that's why it feels a bit different.

 

The original 1980 Emperor was pure awesome. She just gave you the chills, as an evil Emperor should. Ian didn't look that different in ROTJ. It wasn't a big deal, the original Emperor should have remained.

Clive Revill's delivery was so perfect. You feel the mystical evil right off the bat. It's beautiful.

 

The actual dialogue is better. More ambiguous. Once again, changes made that damage the feel of the original film.

Totally agree about his delivery is perfect of the lines. Very creepy. Wonder what Kersh would have made of George messing with his film?

 

Who was the actor that was originally set to play the emperor in ROTJ before Ian Mcdiarmid?

I cannot find any information on this, whatsoever. I heard he even started filming but his eyes couldn't take the yellow contact lens' so he dropped out.

 

Is it true that McDiarmid tried to make his voice match Revill's?

 

whoever he was i'm glad he was such an eyeball wuss. McDiarmid was wonderful.

 

It was Alan Webb, an elderly actor (vs. Ian McDiarmid, then in his mid-30s). Webb actually dropped out because he became ill during the harsh British winter of 1981-2, and died a few months later, while shooting on ROTJ was still going on.