Anywhere from 48* to we have no idea in the slightest.
His Sith Master conducted immortality experiments and he may be able to change his apparent age. He could've been a hundred at Phantom Menace for all we know, let alone RotJ.
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IIRC his "scarred and deformed" appearance after his fight with Mace Windu was said to be his true appearance that the force lightning uncovered. Given that such deformation usually results from decades of calling on the powers of the dark side and given the extent of his deformation he must have been a dark side user for quite some time.
His master, Darth Plagueis died 50 years before Episode IV and its reasonable to assume that he had spent at least ten years training Palpatine before that and that Palpatine was at least 10 when said training began, meaning that Palpatine was at least 50 when he became Emperor and at least 70 when he died in ROTJ.
Wookiepedia gives his birth as 82 years before Episode IV making him 86 when he died.
__________________
“Where the longleaf pines are whispering
to him who loved them so.
Where the faint murmurs now dwindling
echo o’er tide and shore."
-A Grave Epitaph in Santa Rosa County, Florida; I wish I could remember the man's name.
Last edited by Omega Vision on Aug 3rd, 2010 at 01:06 AM
Well he must be a minimum of 50 in ROTS so that would put him in his mid 70's in ROTJ at the least. I would count that as very old, until I'm in my 70's anyway.