Christopher Malcolm, Zev Senesca From The Empire Strikes Back Dies

Reported by Mark

Sad news has reached us that the actor who portrayed Zev Senesca, Rogue 2 from The Empire Strikes Back, has passed away aged 67. Christopher Malcolm played the jocular Senesca, bringing a wry humour to the role inEmpire, but his career was far more than that. Born in Scotland in 1946 but raised in Canada, Malcolm found widespread fame playing Brad in the original stage version of the Rocky Horror Show and had acted with the RSC for a number of years, appearing in 10 productions. Moving into films he appeared in Empire, Reds and Ragtime. But sci-fi fans will likely know him best from his brief role in Highlander, where he fought and was slayed by the Kurgan, and in Jim Henson's Labyrinth. For wider audiences his most high profile role was playing Saffy's gay father in Absolutely Fabulous, as well as appearances in Only Fools and Horses, The Comic Strip and Lovejoy. I interviewed Christopher back in February 2006 and we discussed his time working onThe Empire Strikes Back. JN - How exciting was it to perform in the sequel to the most successful movie of all time? CM - At the time of filming it was a growing phenomenon so there was a knowledge that we were in something special but there was also the normal physical grind of movie making. My stuff in the beginning had to be shot with a special camera and we had to wait days and days before they got the right effect for the blue screen. In fact the camera they used was very famous as it was the one that shot Gone With the Wind. An actor, a director and most importantly a father, friend and husband, he will be sadly missed by all. http://www.jedinews.co.uk/news/news.aspx?newsID=15582