page_title: Admiral Ackbar
section_title: Timothy Rose
hierarchical_section_title: Admiral Ackbar / Portrayals / Timothy Rose
caption_attribution_description: English: Timothy M. Rose speaking at Phoenix Comicon Fan Fest 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona.
context_page_description: Fleet Admiral Gial Ackbar is a fictional character in 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, the final entry in the original Star Wars trilogy. Although his role 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 and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, 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.
context_section_description: Timothy Rose had been a puppeteer working on several Muppets projects for The Jim Henson Company, when Jim Henson directed him and others from the company to work on Return of the Jedi. He was not originally hired to portray Admiral Ackbar, but instead to help build and operate the Sy Snootles puppet for the Max Rebo Band, which performs at the palace of the alien crime lord Jabba the Hutt. While backstage at the workshop where several alien puppets were stored, Rose saw Ackbar's sculpt on a display stand and asked Phil Tippett if he could play the part. Tippett told him it was a background character, and Rose did not know Ackbar would play a major supporting role in the film. He only asked to portray him because he liked the look of the character, and said he was "thinking he was going to be in the third row in a new cantina sequence or something". Rose was not required to audition for the part of Ackbar before being given the role.
  Rose returned to portray Ackbar in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Each day he was provided with pages from the script only for the specific scenes that were being shot, so he knew little about the final role Ackbar would play in the films until shooting took place. Rose was frustrated by the amount of secrecy on the set, which he felt prevented him and the other actors from having everything they needed to do their jobs as well as possible. Many of Ackbar's scenes were cut from the first film, which Rose said was a disappointment to him "after waiting 30 years to reprise Ackbar". After the character's scenes in The Last Jedi were complete, the crew took footage of Rose in the Ackbar's costume saying "It's a wrap", a reference to the character's death and his famous "It's a trap" line. That shot was featured in behind-the-scenes footage shown at the 2017 D23 Expo. Although intended as a joke, Rose found the gesture offensive and said he was "in tears in the suit".
caption: Timothy Rose, pictured here in 2016, portrayed Ackbar in all three Star Wars films.
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