Star Wars: 7 Perfect Performances & 7 That Sucked

6. Ian McDiarmid As Emperor Palpatine

Ever since his first appearance in Return of the Jedi, Ian McDiarmid has made this role his own. In the film he plays master to Darth Vader and Emperor of the galaxy; the big bad who has been pulling the strings behind the scenes all along. The classically trained theatre actor McDiarmid wore heavy make-up and spoke with a chilling voice to bring The Emperor to life in a way that could have quite easily come across as over-the-top, yet he makes it work to huge success.

Cut to 1999 and The Phantom Menace where Ian McDiarmid returns to the franchise to play the politician Palpatine, but also the shadowy Sith Lord, Darth Sidious. His work on the prequels is even more impressive than Return of the Jedi as he effortlessly disappears into these two very different characters who come together to make one during the climax of Revenge of the Sith.

Emperor Palpatine goes down as one of the most memorable characters to ever appear in Star Wars, all down to McDiarmid's performance. The actor even returned in J.J. Abrams’ conclusion, The Rise of Skywalker, and despite not having played the character in a serious capacity for over a decade, once again he nailed it as the chilling Sheev Palpatine.