Clive Revill
Revill as Fagin in the 1963 Broadway production ofOliver!
Born	Clive Selsby Revill (1930-04-18)18 April 1930 Wellington, New Zealand
Died	11 March 2025(2025-03-11) (aged 94) Sherman Oaks, California, US
Occupation	actor
Years active	1950–2016
Children	1

Clive Selsby Revill (18 April 1930 – 11 March 2025) was a New Zealand actor, best known for his performances inmusical theatre and the London stage. A veteran of theRoyal Shakespeare Company, he also starred in numerous films and television programmes, often incharacter parts.^[1] He was a two-timeTony Award nominee, asBest Featured Actor in a Musical forIrma La Douce andBest Actor in a Musical forOliver!^[2] He was also nominated for theGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance inBilly Wilder'sAvanti! (1972).

His roles also included voicingEmperor Palpatine inThe Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Revill was born on 18 April 1930 inWellington, the son of Eleanor May (née Neel) and Malet Barford Revill.^[3] He attendedRongotai College.^[4]

Revill originally trained to be an accountant in New Zealand, but decided to change his career path in 1950 when he made his stage debut as Sebastian inTwelfth Night. In the same year, he moved toLondon, where he studied acting at theOld Vic Theatre.^[5] He appeared inThe Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company's celebrated 1956–1958 season of productions inStratford, which includedHamlet,Love's Labour's Lost,The Merchant of Venice,Julius Caesar andThe Tempest. He went on to have such varied stage roles as Bob (narrator) inIrma la Douce, Ratty inToad of Toad Hall andJean-Paul Marat inMarat/Sade.

He made hisBroadway debut in 1952, playing Sam Weller inThe Pickwick Papers, and subsequently appeared inIrma La Douce,The Incomparable Max andOliver!, for which hisFagin was nominated for aTony Award.^[6] He was also known for his roles inGilbert and Sullivan operas, on both stage and television. He starred in the first national tour of the musicalDrood in 1988, replacingGeorge Rose, who was murdered during the run.^[7]

Revill also participated in the workshop production ofTom Jones: The Musical, playing the role of Squire Western and reprising it on the cast recording.^[8]

Revill's red hair and distinctiveMr. Punch-like features often saw him cast as comic eccentrics in a number of British films of the 1960s and 1970s such asKaleidoscope (1966),Modesty Blaise (1966),The Double Man (1967),Fathom (1967),The Assassination Bureau (1969),A Severed Head (1970),The Black Windmill (1974) andOne of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975). He also had notable supporting turns inOtto Preminger'sBunny Lake Is Missing (1965) oppositeLaurence Olivier, and his American film debutA Fine Madness (1966), as well as a rare leading role in the horror filmThe Legend of Hell House (1973).^[9]

He was often cast as humorous foreign characters (he has played everything from Chinese to Russian). Two of his highest profile roles of this kind were in two films forBilly Wilder:The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) andAvanti! (1972), for which he was nominated for aGolden Globe Award for his part as put-upon hotel manager Carlo Carlucci.^[10]

In the 1978 television miniseriesCentennial, he played the Scottish accountant Finlay Perkin. He played both Ko-Ko (the starring role) inThe Mikado (which he had played in 1962 atSadler's Wells Opera), and the title character, John Wellington Wells, inThe Sorcerer, for the Brent Walker television series of Gilbert and Sullivan productions, shown by the BBC in 1983.^[11]

After relocating to the United States, heguest-starred in many television series, such asColumbo (1978, "The Conspirators");^[5]Hart to Hart;Dynasty;Magnum, P.I.;The Love Boat (S9 E22 as Slade 1986);Remington Steele;Murder, She Wrote;Babylon 5;The Feather and Father Gang;Newhart;MacGyver;Dear John;The Fall Guy;Maude; andStar Trek: The Next Generation.^[10] He starred as the wizard Vector in the short-lived seriesWizards and Warriors.

Revill was known for his proficiency with accents.^[5] He was also known for his voice work in feature-length films and animated series, which includesAlfred Pennyworth in the first three episodes ofBatman: The Animated Series, the voice of Chico in the seven episodes ofChico the Rainmaker (The Boy with the Two Heads) (1974), the voice ofEmperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious in the originalThe Empire Strikes Back (he was replaced byIan McDiarmid in the 2004 DVD version, though Revill is still credited, to create continuity withReturn of the Jedi and theprequel trilogy, as Revill's voice greatly differed from McDiarmid's).^[12] Revill has also featured in numerous cartoons such asThe Transformers andDuckTales and more video games, includingMarvel: Ultimate Alliance andConquest: Frontier Wars.

Revill was married twice and had a daughter, Kate, with his second wife.^[13][14] He died of complications from dementia at aSherman Oaks nursing home, on 11 March 2025, at the age of 94.^[14][15]

• Peter Pan's Flight (1955)

• Clive Revill atIMDb
• Clive Revill at theInternet Broadway Database
• Clive Revill at theTCM Movie Database
• Clive Revill at Aveleyman.com
• Clive Revill discography atDiscogs

• 1930 births
• 2025 deaths
• 20th-century New Zealand male actors
• 21st-century New Zealand male actors
• Audiobook narrators
• Deaths from dementia in California
• New Zealand male film actors
• New Zealand male stage actors
• New Zealand male television actors
• New Zealand male musical theatre actors
• New Zealand male video game actors
• New Zealand male voice actors
• Male actors from Wellington City
• People educated at Rongotai College

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