Michael Sheard, who played Adolf Hitler five times in an acting career that also saw him strangled by Darth Vader in a Star Wars sequel, died on Wednesday at the age of 65, his agent said.
Shard, a native of Scotland, died near his home on the Isle of Wight, in the south of England, with his wife and children at this bedside. He had been suffering from cancer for some time.
Sheard’s many film roles included Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back, in which he was choked to death by Darth Vader in a memorable scene that earned him cult status around the world.
He played Hitler five times, most famously in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, but was best known in Britain as the strict, toupee-wearing French teacher Maurice Bronson in the BBC children’s show Grange Hill.
”He was scary, but as an actor Mr Bronson was a lovely part to play,” Sheard once said. ”Everybody had a Mr Bronson at school.”
Shard began his career in the early 1960s, and over the years appeared in such television shows as Dixon of Dock Green, Dr Who, Crossroads and Auf Wiedersehen Pet. — AFP
