Dooku

"Powerful you have become, Dooku. The dark side I sense in you.''" "''I've become more powerful than any Jedi. Even you."

- Yoda and Dooku

Dooku was a Human male Sith Lord and the political leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Dooku was once a member of the Jedi Order, but he left the Jedi and the Galactic Republic after growing disillusioned with the corruption in the government. He turned to the dark side and became the apprentice of Darth Sidious, taking on the name Darth Tyranus and reclaiming his title as the Count of Serenno. With his master, who was secretly Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Dooku helped form the Separatist Alliance and engineer the Clone Wars. He was also involved in the creation of the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic, having supplied the Kaminoans with the chip containing Clone Protocol 66.

Count Dooku led the Separatist Alliance throughout the war, turning star systems against the Republic through political maneuverings and military might. He took on apprentices of his own, with the intention of one day succeeding his master. He first trained Asajj Ventress; later, after being ordered to dispose of Ventress, Dooku took on a second apprentice, Savage Opress. The tutelage was short-lived, however, as Opress had been used by Ventress as a tool of revenge against her former master.

The final days of the war saw a battle over Coruscant. In a duel aboard the Separatist command ship, Dooku was defeated by Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who beheaded the helpless Dooku at Palpatine's instigation. Dooku was soon replaced as Palpatine's apprentice by Skywalker himself, who fell to the dark side and became Darth Vader. Despite Dooku's death, the plans he helped set into motion during the Clone Wars came to pass, with the destruction of the Jedi Order and the rise of the Galactic Empire.

Portrayal
"He's very aloof, very self-contained, obviously completely fearless. He is extremely intelligent, perhaps more so than almost anyone else. He's obviously a man of immense power. I don't suppose that the question of moral values enter into his head. He's not immoral -- he's amoral. Morality is a word that doesn't figure in his vocabulary at all. It's power. Which is something that exists very much in our world today."

- Sir Christopher Lee's thoughts on his character Dooku.

Dooku was portrayed by Christopher Lee in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Kyle Rowling portrayed Dooku during most of the character's lightsaber sequences, due to Lee's inability to enact these physical scenes because of his age. Rowling's head was digitally replaced with Lee's during post-production.

Christopher Lee reprised his role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while Corey Burton voiced Dooku in the subsequent TV series.

Character origins
The name "Dooku" was based on the Japanese word "doku," meaning poison. In the Galician and Portuguese languages, "do cu," pronounced exactly as in "Dooku," means "from the ass." For this reason, Dooku's name was changed to "Dookan" in Brazil.

Tyrannus&mdash;or more properly, Tyrannos&mdash;is an ancient Greek word, originally used to describe someone who ruled a city-state after overthrowing the preexisting government. It was a legitimate form of government and the word's meaning was not unfavorable in itself, but over time, as democracy developed, it gained negative connotations and came to mean "oppressor" or "tyrant."