Cornelius Evazan / Legends Cornelius Evazan , alias Roofoo and Doctor Cornelius , also nicknamed Doctor Death or simply The Doctor , was a notorious Human male outlaw and sociopath who was active during the Galactic Civil War . He considered himself a skilled surgeon , even though his patients were often maimed or killed after botched " operations . " By the time of the Battle of Yavin , his activities had earned him a death sentence in at least twelve systems . Biography . Early criminal career . Cornelius Evazan originally hailed from the ecumenopolis planet of Alsakan in the Core Worlds . No one knows if Evazan ever obtained a true medical degree . Nonetheless , he was remembered as a promising surgeon . His application to the Imperial Academy was rejected when his innate madness was revealed during an interview , and he was shipped off to the prison on Delrian . Evazan escaped to the Hindasar system , where he established his own " practice " specializing in cyborging and inexpensive surgery . Once the medical and law - enforcement authorities caught up with him , he disappeared to another system , where he began his operations anew . He would repeat this process on several worlds , with occasional forays into spice smuggling , slaving , assassination , and other crimes . He never stayed in one location too long , and his movement from planet to planet helped him gain more and more victims . Evazan was searching for immortality , and was hoping that his experiments on his patients ' insides would point him on a path to discover it . This pursuit of immortality earned him the nickname " Doctor Death , " among others . His legacy of victims led him to be pursued by the bounty hunter Jodo Kast , who nearly caught up to him in the Corellian system . Thanks to the intervention of the Aqualish thug Ponda Baba , Evazan escaped , but not before one of Jodo Kast ' s blaster shots caught him in the face . Evazan was scarred for life , but he and Baba formed a beneficial partnership . Partnership with Ponda Baba . Evazan and Ponda Baba fled Corellia to hide out on Tatooine . It was there that he encountered a young moisture farmer named Luke Skywalker in the Mos Eisley Cantina . They tried to bully the youth into a fight , but found themselves on the wrong side of Obi - Wan Kenobi ' s lightsaber . The two of them fled the scene after Baba ' s arm was cut off . Evazan did his best to replace his partner ' s arm with a cheap cybernetic replacement . The surgery was not a success , and Baba swore revenge , pursuing Evazan across the galaxy . Project Starscream and the search for immortality . Evazan went into hiding on Tatooine , where he set up the Cutting Edge Clinic in Mos Eisley . Under the name Doctor Cornelius , Evazan began operating on unsuspecting patients . He continued to specialize in cyborging and would occasionally use droid parts purchased from Jawas . He was eventually forced to flee Tatooine and , soon after , he was confronted by his old partner , Ponda Baba . The two reconciled and set up base in a castle on Ando , where Evazan made a new breakthrough . He came to the conclusion that it was the mind and not the body that was the key to immortality . He created a mind - transference machine , planning to transfer Ponda Baba ' s mind into a new body . He lured and trapped the Aqualish senator chosen to provide the body . Evazan hoped to transfer his own mind into the body of a " perfect " young man he had captured earlier . Unfortunately for Evazan , the young man was actually a bounty hunter named Gurion Silizzar using a holoshroud to disguise himself . Gurion sought revenge because seven members of his family had been victims of Evazan ' s operations . Gurion forcibly escorted Evazan up to the castle ' s roof , where Gurion planned to kill the doctor . Evazan ' s pet meduza , Rover , saved Evazan ' s life by attacking Gurion , who then fell off the roof to his death . It was then that the Aqualish senator in Ponda Baba ' s body went up onto the roof and detonated a thermal detonator . Evazan fell off the roof moments before the explosion . Once again , Rover saved Evazan ' s life by sacrificing his own to cushion his master ' s fall . At an unknown time during the Galactic Civil War , Dr . Evazan conducted experiments on peko - peko s from the planet Naboo , hoping to create invincible creatures that would act as his protectors and mounts . This experiment resulted in the creation of the toxic peko - peko . Soon after the Battle of Yavin , Evazan went to work for Borborygmus Gog , hoping to gain information from Project Starscream on bringing life to the dead . Evazan moved to Necropolis to work on bringing corpses to life as part of the project . However , during this time , Boba Fett was pursuing Evazan . The bounty hunter caught up to Evazan on the planet Necropolis and executed the mad doctor while he was holding Zak Arranda hostage . Pylum required that Fett leave Evazan ' s body behind , in hopes of holding off the Curse of Sycorax , and Fett agreed , but held them all responsible if he never collected the full bounty . Unknown to them all , Evazan had injected himself with a megadose of his own reanimation serum , and he eventually returned to life . However , the serum only worked well on recently dead bodies . The longer the body stayed dead before being injected , the less likely it was to survive reanimation . Evazan nearly completed his work , but was stopped by the zombie Kairn . Evazan tried to eliminate Hoole , Zak , and Tash Arranda , but Kairn refused to see his friends killed . He used the anti - serum created by DV - 9 to kill the zombie army Evazan had created , then he and Evazan were seemingly killed when the potion touched them . However , Evazan seemingly cheated death yet again . As late as 9 ABY , the doctor was reportedly still at large . Baba also survived , in the body of the senator , and again sought revenge against Evazan . Behind the scenes . Alfie Curtis played Dr . Evazan in " " . Evazan first appeared in the of " " , ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and published in 1976 , half a year before the film . Evazan was unnamed and described as a short Human . In his scene , he was accompanied by a many - eyed and a rodent - like alien — early incarnations of Ponda Baba and Kabe — when they insulted Luke Skywalker . In this version , Obi - Wan Kenobi sliced Evazan ' s hand and cut Kabe and Baba in half . In the Revised Fourth Draft of the screenplay — calling Evazan and Baba " Human " and " Creature " — the scene was about the same . In the final film , Kabe didn ' t accompany Evazan , and Obi - Wan Kenobi dealt less drastically with the outlaws . In " " , Evazan is portrayed as a compulsive joker who doesn ' t know when to keep his mouth shut — which leads to the loss of Ponda Baba ' s arm when he jokes that he and Ponda are wanted men . During the 2012 Super Bowl , Evazan appeared shortly after the Volkswagen commercial of a dog exercising and chasing a car , mocking " The Force " ad from the previous year ( where a child dressed up as Darth Vader attempts to use the Force to start a Passat , only to be stunned when his father engages the remote ignition ) . He ends up nearly strangled by Darth Vader , who was present among the patrons and apparently overheard Evazan , prompting Evazan to apologize .