Michael Culver, Actor in ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ Dies at 85
Michael Culver, an accomplished actor from Britain who famously played the ill-fated Captain Needa in The Empire Strikes Back and a prejudiced police inspector in David Lean's A Passage to India, has passed away at the age of 85.
Alliance Agents, who had been representing Culver for the past ten years, announced his passing on February 27. Further information regarding his death is currently unknown.
Over the years, Culver made numerous appearances on British television shows such as The Befrienders, Secret Army, and The Adventures of Black Beauty, among others. The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Game Set and Match, The House of Eliott, and Cadfael, which starred Derek Jacobi, were also among the shows he appeared on.
The character played by Culver in the movie Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) was the leader of the Imperial Star Destroyer Avenger. Unfortunately, he was unable to keep up with Han Solo's Millennium Falcon when it was being pursued.
Needa accepts complete blame and says sorry to Darth Vader, and in response, he murders Needa ("I forgive you for saying sorry, Captain Needa").
After that, Culver acted as Major McBryde in the Oscar-nominated A Passage to India (1984), which featured Peggy Ashcroft, Judy Davis, James Fox, and Alec Guinness, all winners of the Academy Award. This was Lean's concluding movie.
Culver came into this world in the northern part of London on June 16th, 1938. His dad, Roland, was an actor who performed on stage while his mom, Daphne, worked as a casting director for theatrical productions. It's been rumored that she had a hand in discovering the renowned Richard Burton.
He went to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and was part of the Old Vic group that performed consecutively on Broadway in 1958 in productions of Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and King Henry V. He later reached the West End in 1962 with his performance in Judith.
Afterwards, he made an uncredited appearance in the James Bond movies From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965).
Culver achieved a significant milestone in his career by playing a prominent role alongside Jacobi and Anthony Bate in the ITV telefilm Philby, Burgess and Maclean in 1977. The plot of the movie was based on three actual MI5 agents who engaged in espionage activities for the Russian government.
According to Alliance Agents, Culver decided to shift his focus from acting to political activism during the early 2000s. He collaborated with fellow actor Mark Rylance in a successful campaign to have a statue installed outside the Imperial War Museum in London, dedicated to the late anti-Iraq War protestor Brian Haw.
His second spouse, Amanda, and his offspring - Roderic, Justin, and Susan, along with four grandkids, are the ones who survived him.
