Ackbar was captain of the Mon Calamari Guard when Mon Cala’s King Kolina was assassinated during the Clone Wars. With Separatist warlord Riff Tamson trying to stir up hostilities between the Mon Calamari and the Quarren, Ackbar warned the Jedi Council that a civil war on Mon Cala was inevitable.

Mon Cala’s senator, Meena Tills, ordered Ackbar to protect Prince Lee-Char, Kolina’s heir. Ackbar was reluctant to take the inexperienced Lee-Char into battle, but had little choice: It was a Mon Calamari tradition for the planet’s monarch to lead soldiers in war.

Tamson launched an attack on the Mon Calamari with a force of Quarren and aqua droids. Ackbar led the counterattack, then coordinated operations with the Jedi and clone reinforcements. He gave Lee-Char a weapon, telling him to earn his people’s respect by leading them in battle.

The Mon Calamari prevailed, but Ackbar counseled against overconfidence. And indeed, the Separatists dropped deadly Hydroid Medusas into Mon Cala’s oceans. These new attackers overwhelmed the Mon Calamari, and Ackbar advised Lee-Char to retreat. The prince was discouraged, but Ackbar assured Lee-Char his father would have been proud of him.

Unsure if the Republic was sending reinforcements, Ackbar agreed that Lee-Char’s group should make a dash for the surface and board a Republic frigate for Coruscant. But Tamson’s troops destroyed the warship, forcing the Mon Calamari and Jedi to hide again. The group split up, with Ackbar accompanying Anakin Skywalker and Senator Tills.

Anakin used the Force to topple a sensor mast, blinding Tamson’s forces to the approach of Republic reinforcements, but were captured. Tamson ordered Ackbar taken to a prison camp on the ocean floor.

Prince Lee-Char decided the only way to defeat the Separatists was to rally all of Mon Cala to his cause, including the Quarren that had betrayed the Mon Calamari. He infiltrated the prison camp to tell Ackbar his plan. Ackbar agreed to rally the prisoners when the time was right.

Lee-Char allowed himself to be captured, taking the risk so he could speak with Quarren leader Nossor Ri, who had come to regret his alliance with the Separatists. Tamson brought the prisoners to witness Lee-Char’s execution, only to have the Quarren switch sides and turn on his troops. Ackbar took part in the fight, which ended with Tamson’s death. Mon Cala had been freed, with both Mon Calamari and Quarren now supporting the newly crowned King Lee-Char.

A generation later, the Mon Calamari were instrumental members of the Rebel Alliance, contributing warships to the fight for freedom. Ackbar became the Alliance’s military leader. He helped supervise the evacuation of the rebel base on Yavin 4 and sought to avoid an all-out fight with the Empire, keeping the rebel fleet spread throughout the galaxy to avoid detection.

After the Battle of Hoth, Ackbar warned the Alliance’s commanders that the Empire was constructing a second Death Star – one that would be invulnerable to external attack once completed. The Alliance would have to strike while the battle station was still under construction.

Word from Bothan spies that the Emperor was personally supervising construction of the second Death Star offered an opportunity for the Alliance to defeat the Empire with one swift stroke. In a meeting near Sullust, Ackbar outlined the Alliance’s plan: Commandos would bring down the Death Star’s shields, while rebel capital ships engaged Imperial warships and starfighters attacked the battle station’s main reactor.

Ackbar led the Alliance fleet attack on Endor, coordinating his capital ships’ maneuvers with starfighter wings led by Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles. But to his horror, the Empire had sprung a trap on the Alliance – the Death Star was operational, and Imperial Star Destroyers were in position to stop the rebel warships from escaping.

Ackbar counseled a retreat, but Calrissian convinced him to give Han Solo’s commandos more time to bring down the shield generator protecting the Death Star. Ackbar agreed, and threw his warships at the Star Destroyers in a furious delaying action. Calrissian and Antilles then destroyed the Death Star, winning an enormous victory for the Alliance.

Promoted to Grand Admiral, Ackbar led the war effort against the remnants of the Empire, working in close consultation with Mon Mothma and her new ministers. His leadership helped win many battles, including an assault on Kuat and the liberation of Kashyyyk. The war culminated with the Battle of Jakku and the signing of peace treaty between the New Republic and the Empire.

With the war over and the Empire’s remnants seemingly contained, Ackbar retired to Mon Cala, only to watch in dismay as his friend Leia Organa’s bid for the chancellorship was sabotaged and factionalism split the New Republic. When Leia founded the Resistance as a check on the First Order, she coaxed Ackbar back into military service.

Ackbar shared Leia’s alarm about the growing power of the First Order and the impossibility of verifying whether it was abiding by the peace treaties that had ended the war between the New Republic and the Empire. As a senior officer in Leia’s Resistance, the old Mon Calamari’s decades of service commanded instant respect during clashes such as the raid on Starkiller Base.

When the Resistance was forced to flee D’Qar, Ackbar commanded the fleet, serving aboard the Mon Calamari heavy cruiser Raddus. The Alliance hero was killed – along with many of his fellow officers – when a First Order torpedo ripped through the ship’s bridge.