Amise Griff was a Human male admiral of the Imperial Navy who commanded the Sector Group in the Bright Jewel Oversector and oversaw the development and construction of the Executor-class Star Dreadnought at Fondor. Following the Death Star's destruction, Admiral Griff was removed from Grand Moff Nox Vellam's staff and handpicked by the Supreme Commander, Darth Vader, to serve as his adjutant.
At the Sith Lord's behest, he infiltrated a group of traitorous Imperial officers who plotted to hand Executor's schematics over to the Rebel Alliance. Griff arranged a meeting between them and their Rebel contact, Luke Skywalker, in hopes of delivering them all to Darth Vader. Though the turncoats were apprehended, the young Jedi was alerted to the presence of the Dark Lord of the Sith and escaped the Admiral. After his mission on Fondor, Vader placed Griff in charge of the Blockade of Yavin. Unaware of his superior's plans, Griff resolved to step out of Vader's shadow and crush the Alliance on his own. In a desperate attempt to pursue the Rebels, the Admiral made a hyperspace jump and dropped right into the Sith Lord's flagship, which had lied in wait at this precise spot. Griff died in the subsequent collision.
The commanding officer of the Sector Group in the Bright Jewel Oversector, Amise Griff held the naval rank of Admiral and answered to the local Grand Moff, Governor-General Nox Vellam. Following the disastrous Battle of Yavin that saw the Death Star battlestation's destruction, he found himself reassigned to act as an adjutant to Darth Vader, the Commander of the Imperial Fleet.
Imperial admirals plot.
At first, Griff served as an agent provocateur on Fondor, a role in which he proved successful; he infiltrated a cell of traitorous Imperial officers with part in the Executors construction, regularly reporting on them to Vader. The turncoats had grown jealous of Lord Vader's unique position in the naval hierarchy as the right-hand of Emperor Palpatine. Though they were not very sympathetically inclined towards the Rebels, they hoped selling the Executor-class Star Dreadnaught's schematics to them would weaken their rival. By feigning sympathy for the traitors' cause and organizing their operations successfully, Griff eventually became their leader.
Griff was ready to arrest them when Luke Skywalker, their Rebel contact, arrived, and Vader ordered his capture. Griff then befriended Skywalker and helped him in his mission, still posing as a Rebel sympathizer. After some time, he formed a new plan: to organize a meeting between Skywalker and the conspirators to incriminate them and set up a trap for the Rebel hero. However, Vader insisted on personally supervising the operation, and Skywalker felt his powerful dark presence through the Force. Although Griff's stormtroopers managed to arrest the traitors, the now-alerted young Jedi escaped, bringing the schematics with him.
Later, Griff was placed in charge of the Blockade of Yavin. This long, drawn-out operation was marked by rivalry between Vader's supporters and Vellam's. Early in the operation, Griff warned that the blockade was ineffective and that the Rebels were steadily building up their fleet, advocating a decisive strike before the balance shifted to their favor. Vader, however, was too preoccupied with a scheme involving a fake Obi-Wan Kenobi to engage in such an operation at the time, and Griff, stretched thin, watched his numerical superiority dwindle.
When the Rebels later mounted their final escape attempt, Vader once again pursued his own agenda, this time to leave a portion of the blockade deliberately weakened, allowing the Rebels to escape so that he could he lure them into a trap, again not bothering to inform Griff. Instead, the Admiral spotted the flaw by himself, sending three Imperial-class Star Destroyers to reinforce the breach and taking personal command of this force. The Rebels, led by Luke Skywalker, managed to defeat Griff's fighters and escaped past his positions at the climax of the siege. He then opted for a gamble and ordered an immediate hyperspace leap after the fleeing enemy.
Griff's demise
With all the required information, the plan may well have worked. As it was, however, he brought his fleet out of hyperspace too close to Vader's flagship, the Executor, which had secretly been waiting for the Rebels at this precise spot, and the ships collided. Griff was killed, and the three Star Destroyers that collided with the Executor were destroyed by the impact; the Executor lost its shields but suffered no major structural damage. It was, however, delayed long enough to allow the Rebels to escape.
Griff was an ambitious man with few moral scruples, always ready to take advantage of the mistakes of others. He was also more than a little vain, wearing an expensive fur-brimmed coat, in addition to his standard service uniform. However, he was a competent, albeit at times somewhat brash, naval commander, and an accomplished agent with a working knowledge of ground combat tactics, making up for some of his other character flaws. To ensure a successful career, Griff "worked in [Vader's] shadow" and acted out his will. Though he proved himself a valuable subordinate and even fawned on him, the Admiral eventually grew weary of the Dark Lord's choices in command and made his own, ultimately fatal, gamble for glory.
In the Classic Star Wars comics in which he appears, Griff wears a nonstandard, all-red rank insignia, rather than a standard admiral's badge.