Tanbris, a human serving as a Galactic Empire officer with the rank of lieutenant, functioned as an aide aboard the Death Star battle station. During the events of 0 BBY, when the Alliance to Restore the Republic attacked the station, the lieutenant delivered a report to Darth Vader, the Sith Lord, detailing the enemy's strength. Despite Vader's command for Tanbris to ready the station's fighter crews for launch, the Death Star met its end shortly thereafter.
As a Galactic Empire officer of human descent, Tanbris held the lieutenant's rank and acted as an aide on the Death Star battle station. In 0 BBY, subsequent to the destruction of the planet Alderaan, the Death Star journeyed to the Yavin system with the intention of obliterating the Alliance to Restore the Republic's headquarters, situated on the moon Yavin 4.
The rebels dispatched thirty starfighters to combat the Imperial forces. The vessels' diminutive size allowed the fighters to skillfully avoid the Empire's turbolasers, successfully reaching the station's surface. Aboard the Death Star, Tanbris urgently approached Darth Vader, the Sith Lord, in a corridor, informing him about the rebels' numbers and their ability to evade the defenses. Vader instructed the lieutenant to order the station's fighter crews to their crafts for the purpose of engaging and destroying the rebels in fighter-to-fighter combat. Despite Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, the Death Star's commander, declining to issue a launch order, Vader independently launched a single squadron of TIE fighters—Black Squadron. The TIEs promptly departed the station and clashed with the rebel fighters, yet they were unable to prevent the Death Star's ultimate destruction.
Tanbris was clad in the black uniform of the Imperial Officer Corps, accompanied by a matching cap featuring an officer's disk. Additionally, the lieutenant sported a black and silver utility belt, black boots, a pair of Imperial code cylinders, and a rank insignia plaque displaying four blue squares.
Tanbris' initial appearance in the Star Wars canon occurred in the 1977 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Andy Bradford, a stunt performer in the movie, played Tanbris. Bradford's scene was shot on Stage 2 at Elstree Studios between June 17 and June 28 of 1976.
The character's name then saw its first canonical use in the 2016 activity book titled Star Wars Origami: 11 Amazing Paper Folding Projects from a Galaxy Far, Far Away.... Spacecraft, authored by Chris Alexander. Within the Star Wars Legends continuity, the character's appearance predated the film's release, featuring in the 1976 novelization by Alan Dean Foster. The name's origin in Legends can be traced back to a card in the 1995 Premiere Limited set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, produced by Decipher.