Maximilian "Max" Rebo, hailing from Orto, was a male Ortolan renowned as a Jizz-wailer musician; he was the front man of the celebrated Max Rebo Band. His primary instrument was the red ball jett organ, played skillfully with his feet, and he and his band frequently provided entertainment for the underworld, performing for various criminals and gangsters.
On the cold planet of Orto, Maximilian Rebo born. Rebo would eventually establish a band, known as the Max Rebo Band, that would ultimately perform Jizz-genre music for the notorious crime lord Jabba the Hutt. He also had a sibling named Azool Phantelle.
Azool, at one juncture, defrauded several individuals residing in the spaceport of Mos Eisley on the desert planet Tatooine. The victims, in turn, confused Rebo for Azool, initiating a pursuit of the musician. While fleeing in the direction of Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, Rebo inadvertently collided with a pair of Imperial stormtroopers. Before the [troopers](/article/trooper] could reprimand him for the collision, Azool, passing by on a speeder bike, recognized Rebo and swiftly rescued his brother from the predicament, pulling him onto the bike.
As they sped away from the irate stormtroopers and locals, Rebo reproached Azool for his criminal lifestyle. He expressed concern that Jabba the Hutt, Rebo's employer, might punish both of them for Azool's transgressions, given that they had occurred within the crime lord's territory. Undeterred, Azool evaded a missile launched by Boushh, but Rebo brought the chase to an end by seizing Azool's bag of stolen funds and scattering the contents to their pursuers. Subsequently, Rebo and Azool dismounted the speeder, with Azool displaying sadness as he watched his ill-gotten gains being taken by those chasing them. Jabba the Hutt then approached them, inquiring about the situation. Rebo explained that Azool had been causing trouble in Jabba's territory, while Azool claimed ignorance of the area's affiliation with Jabba. Consequently, Jabba punished Azool by assigning him the role of a waiter aboard the Khetanna.
In 4 ABY, Rebo and his band provided musical entertainment for Jabba. Their performance was interrupted by the scream of Jabba's slave dancer Oola as she was cast into the Hutt's rancor pit beneath his throne room for defying him, causing a disruption to the band's performance. Later, the band was present when Leia Organa entered the palace disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh. During the night, several members of the band accompanied Jabba into hiding as Organa liberated the smuggler Han Solo from his carbonite encasement.
Subsequently, Max Rebo journeyed aboard Jabba's sail barge, the Khetanna, to the Great Pit of Carkoon, the location designated for Solo's execution. After Daladit-Chan delivered a message to his son, Umpass-stay, instructing him to kill Jabba, Rebo was tasked with carrying out the assassination using a type of poison. Max was discovered, but was fortunate when Luke Skywalker stormed into the sail barge, and distracted Jabba. At the end of the day, Max Rebo was still alive. The Khetanna was destroyed by Solo and his comrades, causing the sail barge to erupt in flame across the desert. However, Rebo managed to escape the destruction.
By 9 ABY, the Ortolan began employment at Garsa Fwip's Sanctuary, a cantina managed by the Twi'lek Garsa Fwip during the New Republic Era. At the Sanctuary, Rebo continued to play the red ball jet organ (albeit a new model), and was performing when the cantina was visited by the former bounty hunter and Daimyo of Mos Espa Boba Fett on multiple occasions. Rebo was accompanied by a guitar-playing Bith and a drum-playing droid. The Pyke Syndicate subsequently bombed the Sanctuary; however, Rebo survived.
Max Rebo initially appeared in the 1983 Star Wars motion picture, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Although occasionally described as such, Rebo was not a puppet but rather a costume; the performer Simon Williamson was required to sit inside the suit to portray the character. Williamson secured the role after the character he was originally slated to play, Sic-Six, was removed from the film. Upon being shown the Rebo costume as an alternative part he could claim by Phil Tippett, Williamson described perceiving Rebo as a "blue vision of loveliness" and felt a strong desire to play him. The 2016 young reader's Canon reference book The Amazing Book of Star Wars incorrectly spells his last name as "Reebo."
Rebo's design in the non-canon 2022 video game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga reuses the design for his minifigure in the Star Wars Legends-era LEGO Classic Star Wars set 75020 Jabba's Sail Barge. Consequently, the character is depicted with a pair of arms instead of only legs, consistent with Ortolans from the Legends continuity, as opposed to Canon Ortolans which possess only legs.