Ian McDiarmid: 'As a kid, I always wanted to be the baddie'
The theatre and film actor on staging a pair of Julian Barnes stories, playing Emperor Palpatine, and finding peace in isolation Ian McDiarmid, 77, has distinguished himself as a theatrical all-rounder. He made his name on stage as an actor of incisive authority and is internationally known as Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars films. Between 1990 and 2002, he ran " with Jonathan Kent " the Almeida theatre in London …