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Ian McDiarmid

Ian McDiarmid was born on April 17, 1947, in Carnoustie, Scotland.

He grew up in Dundee, Tayside. It was not a place that fostered artistic endeavour. Despite a fascination with the theatre, Ian first studied social sciences. He earned an MA at St. Andrews University, in Fife, but could not take heart in a career as a clinical psychologist. Thereafter, he worked for a year to be able to pay for acting courses at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. There he won the gold medal in 1968. He worked in various fringe theatres in Scotland and England and then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. In November 1979, he appeared as guest star on the television series The Professionals. He began to be cast in small, supporting roles in cinema. His first major role in the movies was as the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, in 1983.

His passion is the theatre, and he has become an established actor and director on the stage in the United Kingdom. In 1990, Ian McDiarmid and Jonathan Kent took over the Almeida Theatre in Islington as co-artistic directors. The Almeida, then an obscure fringe theatre, has since become one of the most reputed playhouses in London. Such a small venue now showcases performances by many talented actors with considerable star power. McDiarmid and Kent were awarded with Theatrical Achievement of the Year by the Evening Standard in 1998, and have been called "the capital's prime impresarios" by theatre critic Nicholas de Jongh.

While Ian McDiarmid's talent and success in the theatre are resounding, he has of late also been appearing more frequently in cinema and on television. He has become better known world-wide as an actor and has kept his private life to himself. To Star Wars fans, he is known as the unforgettable, terrifying Emperor in Return of the Jedi, and in the dual role of the charismatic, graceful Senator Palpatine and of the foreboding, sinister Darth Sidious (uncredited) in The Phantom Menace. Ian McDiarmid has signed a three-picture deal for the prequels and will reprise the role twice more in the coming years.


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