Clive Revill

Clive Selsby Revill (18 April 1930 – 11 March 2025) was a New Zealand actor and singer born in Wellington, the son of Eleanor May (née Neel) and Malet Barford Revill. Educated at Rongotai College and Victoria University of Wellington, he originally trained as an accountant before redirecting his career toward the stage. His first performance came in 1950, when he played Sebastian in Twelfth Night, and that same year he relocated to London to study at the Old Vic Theatre School. His Broadway career extended from 1952 to 1988, and he earned two Tony Award nominations during that span.

Revill made his Broadway debut in 1952 as Sam Weller in The Pickwick Papers. He went on to appear in Irma La Douce, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1961, playing the role of Bob, the narrator. His portrayal of Fagin in Oliver! brought him a second Tony nomination, this time for Best Actor in a Musical in 1963. Additional Broadway credits included The Incomparable Max, Sherry!, Oliver Oliver, and Lolita. In 1988, he starred in the first national tour of Drood, stepping into the production as a replacement for George Rose. His stage work extended well beyond Broadway: he appeared in the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company's 1956–1958 Stratford season, which encompassed productions of Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar, and The Tempest. He also took on roles as Ratty in Toad of Toad Hall and Jean-Paul Marat in Marat/Sade, and was associated with Gilbert and Sullivan operas on both stage and television, playing Ko-Ko in The Mikado and the title role in The Sorcerer for a BBC-broadcast series of Gilbert and Sullivan productions in 1983. He additionally participated in the workshop production of Tom Jones: The Musical as Squire Western, a role he reprised on the cast recording.

Revill built a substantial film career alongside his stage work, frequently cast as comic eccentrics in British productions of the 1960s and 1970s. His credits from that period include Modesty Blaise (1966), The Double Man (1967), Fathom (1967), The Assassination Bureau (1969), A Severed Head (1970), The Black Windmill (1974), and One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975). He appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) and made his American film debut in A Fine Madness (1966). Two collaborations with director Billy Wilder proved particularly notable: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) and Avanti! (1972), in which he played hotel manager Carlo Carlucci and received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also took a rare leading role in the horror film The Legend of Hell House (1973). His final film appearance came in the 2016 Spanish production The Queen of Spain, directed by Fernando Trueba.

Among his most widely recognized contributions to film was his voice performance as Emperor Palpatine in the original theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back (1980). He was replaced by Ian McDiarmid in the 2004 DVD version, though Revill retained a screen credit. He later appeared in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). After relocating to the United States, Revill became a prolific television guest performer, appearing in series including Columbo, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Magnum P.I., Remington Steele, Murder She Wrote, Babylon 5, MacGyver, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, among others. He starred as the wizard Vector in the series Wizards and Warriors. In the 1978 miniseries Centennial, he played Scottish accountant Finlay Perkin.

Revill was also active as a voice actor across animation and video games, providing the voice of Alfred Pennyworth in the first three episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and contributing to productions including The Transformers, DuckTales, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Conquest: Frontier Wars. He was married twice and had a daughter, Kate Selsby Revill, with his second wife. Revill died on 11 March 2025, at the age of 94, from complications from dementia at a nursing home in Sherman Oaks, California.