Admiral Ackbar

Fleet Admiral Gial Ackbar is a fictional character from the Star Wars franchise. A member of the amphibious Mon Calamari species, Ackbar was the foremost military commander of the Rebel Alliance and led the attack against the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi (1983), the final entry in the original Star Wars trilogy. Although his time in the film was brief, Ackbar became a prominent character in other Star Wars media, including novels, comic books, video games, and television shows, and later made appearances in the sequel trilogy films Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and the television series The Clone Wars.

With his distinctive salmon-colored skin, webbed hands, high-domed head, and large fish-like eyes, Ackbar was realized in Return of the Jedi through the use of either a half-body puppet or full-body costume, depending on the camera angle required. In all three films he was portrayed by puppeteer Timothy D. Rose, who originally played other characters, but requested to also play Ackbar after seeing his sculpt on a display stand. Ackbar was voiced by Erik Bauersfeld, who made up the voice on the spot after looking at a photograph of Ackbar. Bauersfeld voiced the character in Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, but died before the filming of The Last Jedi, in which he was replaced by Tom Kane, who had voiced Ackbar in other works of Star Wars media.

Ackbar was originally planned to be more conventionally humanoid, but after Star Wars creator George Lucas decided to make him an alien, he allowed Return of the Jedi director Richard Marquand to pick from various designs. Marquand picked a sketch by concept artist Nilo Rodis-Jamero, over the objections of other members of the film crew who thought the character looked too silly or ugly. Ackbar made his first appearance not in the film, but in a Star Wars newspaper comic strip that ran a few months before Return of the Jedi was released.