Grand Moff Tarkin

"You would prefer another target, a military target? Then name the system! I grow tired of asking this so it will be the last time: Where is the rebel base?"

- Grand Moff Tarkin's interrogation with Princess Leia. "Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances."

- Grand Moff Tarkin answering to one of his commanders, minutes before the Death Star is destroyed.

Grand Moff Tarkin, also known as Governor Tarkin is a major antagonist of the Star Wars franchise. He is one of two main antagonists of the first film in the original trilogy A New Hope, and a major antagonist in the sequel series Star Wars: Rebels and the 2016 movie Rogue One.

He is an Imperial governor and in charge of the Imperial military battle station known as the Death Star. He acts as Darth Vader's surperior. After Princess Leia has been captured by the Empire and has been brought onto the Death Star, Tarkin manages to convince her to tell him the location of the rebel base, threatening Leia's home planet Alderaan. However, after finding out the base location Tarkin activates the Death Star nonetheless, destroying Alderaan and killing billions. He then has the Death Star take course on Yavin 4 where he intends to wipe out the rebels once and for all. However, before he can reach his goal the Death Star is blown up by rebel fighters, with Tarkin being one of the casualties.

Tarkin was portrayed by Peter Cushing in A New Hope. In Revenge of the Sith he was portrayed by Wayne Pygram. In Rogue One Guy Henry portrayed Tarkin, with CGI being used to superimpose Cushing's face over Henry.

Past
Tarkin met Vader as his past self Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. After Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader Tarkin suspected Skywalker had become Vader, but had never been able to confirm that.

He makes a brief cameo in the last movie of the prequel saga, Revenge of the Sith at the end of the movie as he, along with Vader and Emperor Palpatine supervise the construction of the Death Star on board of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

Some years later during the era of the empire, Tarkin became Grand Moff and traveled to the planet Lothal to find a way to hunt the rebels of the planet.

Rogue One
After Imperial Director Orson Krennic has succeeded in building the Death Star, Tarkin arrived on the station to have its powers demonstrated to him. Nearing the planet Jedha, Krennic offers to use the Death Star to destroy the entire planet. However, Tarkin tells him to merely use a low-powered blast on the planet's capital Jedha City. After the Death Star used a single ignition blast to annihilate the capital and the nearby area, an impressed Tarkin reveals to Krennic that he will be taking command of the station as of now, using the security breach under Krennic's command as a pretext to remove Krennic from his position. He also tells Krennic to spread the story that Jedha City was destroyed in a mining accident, as he does not want the Senate to find out about the Death Star.

When the Imperial base on Scarif (where all information on the Death Star is stored) is attacked by rebels, Tarkin orders the jump to hyperspace, just as Rebel maverick Jyn Erso (the protagonist of the film) managed to retrieve the plans and send them to the nearby Rebel fleet before confronting Krennic. Arriving in the moment of the Rebels' moment of triumph, Tarkin activates the Death Star to destroy the Imperial base on Scarif, which ultimately kills all the remaining Rebels and Imperial forces (including Jyn and Krennic). Despite having destroyed the base, Tarkin is furious to hear that the plans have fallen to Rebel hands thanks to Jyn's efforts.

A New Hope
In the first officially launched movie of the Star Wars  franchise (re-released as Episode IV: A New Hope), Grand Moff Tarkin makes a first appearance with Darth Vader, after the Millenium Falcon had landed one one of the Death Star bays. Darth Vader feels the presence of his old master, but Tarkin reassures him that the Jedi are extinct.

He and Lord Vader held Princess Leia Organa captive on board the Death Star. They attempted to interrogate her to reveal the location of the Rebel Base. After Leia told him the base was on the planet of Dantooine, Tarkin decides to destroy the princess's home planet Alderaan anyway, and then deal with her "rebel friends" later. This makes him cross the Moral Event Horizon like he's driving a spaceship into it. After the truth is revealed that the rebel base was not at Dantooine, Tarkin planned to have Leia Organa killed.

After Princess Leia is rescued by Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, Tarkin plots with Vader the destruction of the Rebel base when in range, having planted a signal beacon on the Millenium Falcon before they escaped. During the Rebel attack on the Death Star, however, Luke Skywalker uses the Force to guide his proton torpedoes to the exhaust port and destroys the Imperial space station, killing all Imperial troops, commanders, and officials on board. Tarkin is the most-notable of the crew of the Death Star to be destroyed in the explosion.

Trivia

 * Tarkin can be regarded as the second main antagonist of A New Hope (alongside Vader himself), as Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious (the true villain of the entire saga) did not make his first appearance until "The Empire Strikes Back", and also Peter Cushing, who played the character got high billing behind Mark Hamill (Luke), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia).
 * Tarkin is the very first Star Wars villain to be a Complete Monster.
 * The scene where Tarkin interrogates Princess Leia for the whereabouts of the rebel base was later parodied in the Pixar film Toy Story when Sid Phillips burns Woody's head.
 * Despite the fact that Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Obi-Wan Kenobi are Tarkin's enemies, and Luke is the one who kills him, they have never had any actual interactions.
 * Despite his respect for Palpatine, Tarkin does not seem to care about Palpatine's fate and is more eager to gain the Empire for himself than to serve Palpatine.
 * Tarkin's evil is regarded with close respect to Palpatine, and despite far smaller screentime, his destruction of Alderaan is regarded as one of the worst actions of the saga..
 * He is commonly mistaken as the main antagonist. However, Vader is the main antagonist since Tarkin only makes a few appearances throughout the movie.
 * In Revenge of the Sith Lucas briefly considered using CGI and existing footage of Cushing to recreate Tarkin before deciding instead to cast a heavily made up Pygram as Tarkin. In 2016 director Gareth Edwards felt the technology had advanced far enough to use a CGI recreation of Cushing in the film Rogue One.