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star wars - How old was Emperor Palpatine, and did the dark side keep him alive?


Does anyone know how old Emperor Palpatine was? He seems about 60 in Episode 1 and about 70 in 2 and 3 (I'd guess) so pretty old in the original trilogy - 90 ish? And, I think this counts as the same question as presented in my title, does the Dark Side or the Force in general sustain him? It just occurred to me that some anti-Empire groups might just comfort themselves thinking, "He won't last much longer."



Answer



To the best of my knowledge Palpatine's birth year has never been mentioned in-universe anywhere. However, an archived blog entry on starwars.com written by Leland Chee lists the major characters' birth years. It states that Palpatine was born in 82 BBY, and that Return of the Jedi took place in 4 ABY, so Palpatine was about 86 years old when he died:



-896 Yoda


~ -600 Jabba the Hutt



~ -200 Chewbacca


-102 Count Dooku


-92 Qui-Gon Jinn


-82 Palpatine [47BrS:8:11]


-72 Mace Windu


-66 Jango Fett


-57 Obi-Wan Kenobi


-46 Padmé Amidala


-41.9 Anakin Skywalker


-32 Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace [3:4:14]



-31.5 Boba Fett


-31 Lando Calrissian


-29 Han Solo


-22 Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones [13:5:21]


-21 Wedge Antilles


-19 Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith [16:5:23]


-19 Luke Skywalker & Princess Leia (Luke born first)


-18 Corran Horn


-18 Mara Jade Skywalker


0 Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope



3 Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back


4 Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi


9 Jaina & Jacen Solo (Jaina born first)


10 Anakin Solo


26.5 Ben Skywalker



Palpatine indicated in Revenge of the Sith that his master, Darth Plagueis, could create life and prevent death. However, Palpatine apparently did not learn how to do it before he murdered Plagueis; when Anakin became Darth Vader, Palpatine told him that he did not know how to prevent death (which would presumably involve the ability to prevent aging):



Anakin: Just help me save Padme's life. I can't live without her. I won't let her die. I want the power to stop death.


Palpatine: To cheat death is a power only one has achieved, but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret.




So did Palpatine discover how to cheat death using the dark side between Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi? From the linked question the conclusion is that, canonically, there is no indication that he did; however, there are some Legends sources in which he did figure it out.


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