RIP Richard LeParmentier

[brian]

Star Wars actor Richard LeParmentier dies aged 66... 35 years after he was choked by Darth Vader

• He played the arrogant Admiral Motti, commander of Vader's Death Star

• The circumstances surrounding his actual death are currently unclear

Star Wars actor Richard LeParmentier has died, aged 66.

He famously played a choking victim of Star Wars villain Darth Vader in 1977 film A New Hope.

TMZ reports that the circumstances surrounding LeParmentier's death are currently unclear.

The actor had appeared in more than 50 movies and TV shows but was best remembered for his role as the arrogant Admiral Motti, commander of Vader's planet destroying Death Star in 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope.

In the infamous scene, Motti mocks Vader's 'sorcerer's ways' and 'sad devotion to that ancient Jedi religion.'

This leads to a near-fatal confrontation with the helmeted Vader who crushes his windpipe using 'the force.'

LeParmentier also played a police officer in 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and is reported to have recently been working as a screenwriter for British television.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1946 to British and Irish parents, he moved to the UK in 1974.

He was married from 1981 to 1984 to British actress Sarah Douglas, who played the supervillain Ursa in Superman II.

LeParmentier also made an appearance in the Christopher Reeve film as a reporter.

He also had roles in James Bond film Octopussy and the TV shows Capital City and We'll Meet Again.

The actor, who appeared at several sci-fi conventions, said in 2008 of his famous Star Wars scene: 'I did the choking effect by flexing muscles in my neck. It set off a chain of events, that choking.

'I can't do it anymore because, oddly enough, I have had an operation on my neck and had some 21st century titanium joints put into it,' he added to The Coventry Telegraph Geek Files.

Originally, LeParmentier was asked by creator George Lucas to play an unnamed part with only a few lines, but he turned it down, before being offered the role that would launch his career.

His family paid tribute to 'a warm, genuine person with an unparalleled joie de vivre.'

'He absolutely loved travelling the world and meeting his friends and fellow Stars Wars fans - whose tributes have given us all the best lines in this message,' Rhiannon, Stephanie, and Tyrone LeParmentier said in a statement.

'Every time we find someone's lack of faith disturbing, we'll think of him .. He has gone to the Stars, and he will be missed.'

He died while visiting relatives in Austin, Texas.