Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington (June 7, 1943 - May 10, 2026) was a British actor and director who, together with director Michael Bogdanov, founded the English Shakespeare Company. Although primarily a stage actor, he is best known to wider audiences for his role as Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod, commanding officer of the Death Star in the film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and as Michael Foot in The Iron Lady, opposite Meryl Streep.

Filmography

• 2021Manik da: The Mystique of Pather Panchali — Narrator (voice)
• Raised by Wolves — The Trust (voice)
• 20151945: The Savage Peace — Narrator (voice)
• 2014Secrets of the Universe: Great Scientists in Their Own Words — Narrator (Voice)
• Endeavour — Professor Donald Bagley
• Father Brown — Bishop Reynard
• 2013RSC Live: Richard II — John of Gaunt
• The Escape Artist — Judge
• 2011The Iron Lady — Michael Foot
• The Lost World of Communism
• 2008Airborne: The RAF at 90 — Narrator - (Voice)
• 2008Florence Nightingale — Wen
• Lewis — Dr. Melville
• 2005Fragile — Marcus
• Empire Warriors — Narrator
• 2003Colosseum - Rome's Arena of Death — Narrator (UK version) (voice)
• State of Play — Richard Siegler
• 2002Pyramid — Narrator (voice)
• 2002The Dinosaur Hunters — William Buckland
• Dr Terrible's House of Horrible — Priest
• Waking the Dead — Prof Alan Macintosh
• 1996Cracker: White Ghost — Commander Gordon Ellison
• Dalziel and Pascoe — Hartley Culpepper
• Silent Witness — Dennis Morgan
• 1994Degas and Pissario Fall Out — Degas
• Between the Lines
• 1991Henry IV: Part 1 — Prince Henry of Wales
• 1991Henry IV: Part 2 — Henry Prince of Wales
• 1991Henry V — King Henry V
• 1991Henry VI: House of Lancaster — Earl of Suffolk
• 1991Henry VI: House of York — Jack Cade
• In My Defence — Franz Jagerstatter
• 1991Richard II — Richard II
• 1991Richard III — Duke of Buckingham
• Summer's Lease — Hugh Pargeter
• 1987The Return of Sherlock Holmes — Sherlock Holmes
• ScreenPlay — Thomas Kyd
• 1986The Marlowe Inquest — Thomas Kyd
• 1986Theban Plays: Oedipus the King — Oedipus Rex
• 1985Forbidden Passion: The Oscar Wilde Movie
• Freud — Carl Jung
• Italians — Narrator
• Playing Shakespeare
• 1984The Mayor of Montemilone — Narrator
• 1984Waving to a Train — Richard
• 1983Cymbeline — Posthumus
• 1983Return of the Jedi — Moff Jerjerrod
• 1982Outside Edge — Bob
• 1981A Last Visitor for Mr. Hugh Peter — John Lilburne
• 1978Danton's Death — Saint-Just
• 1978Mr and Mrs Bureaucrat — E1A
• BBC2 Play of the Week — E1A
• 1977It's Only Rock 'n' Roll — Don Harris
• 1976The Witches of Pendle — Minister
• Playhouse — John Lilburne
• No Exit — Ian Strawson
• 1970Mad Jack
• 1970The Dolly Scene — Tom
• 1969Hamlet — Laertes
• W. Somerset Maugham — Hans
• The Root of All Evil? — Clive Pinner
• 1968The Tycoon — Peter Bell
• Callan
• ITV Playhouse — Lancelot Wishart
• BBC Play of the Month — St Just, Alexei Turbin
• Public Eye — John Sheldon
• Thirty-Minute Theatre — Martin
• The Wednesday Play — Geoffrey Cromlech
• Theatre 625 — Wulfnoth, Alexander
• Drama 61-67 — First youth
• No Hiding Place
• Armchair Theatre — Adrian, Tom

Appearances as themselves (1)

• 1994The Last Bolshevik — Self (voice: English version)