query: Is Ian McDiarmid still alive?
passage: Ian McDiarmid
Ian McDiarmid (/məkˈdɜːrmɪd/; born 11 August 1944) is a Scottish character actor and director. He has appeared in 47 films since 1976. He portrayed Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars film series.[1] He has received an Olivier Award for Best Actor and a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performances.
passage: Ian Chesterton
The character of Ian was intended by the production team to return for a guest appearance in the 1983 "Doctor Who" story "Mawdryn Undead", but this plan fell through when Russell proved to be unavailable. The script was modified to instead feature Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart as the story's schoolteacher character. However, in 1999 Russell did return to the part for the BBC Worldwide video release of "The Crusade," two of the four episodes of which are missing from the archives. Russell provided linking narration between the existing episodes in character as an aged Ian Chesterton reminiscing about the events of the story.