VOTD: Who Is Willrow Hood? A Deep Dive Into A Background Character From Star Wars

Last week /Film reader Alex D sent me a link to this Star Wars Minute video which profiles a character named Willrow Hood. You might be wondering, who the hell is Willrow Hood? He's one of the more popular original trilogy Star Wars characters that you've never heard of. That might be because Willrow appears on screen in Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back for only a a brief second of two. Find out Willrow's  expanded universe story and see the art, toys and cosplay the character has inspired.

And here is an excerpt on the character from Wookieepedia:

Willrow Hood first appeared in the film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back as an unidentified Cloud City extra. His identity was first touched upon in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, where it was explained that he was a miner employed by a company with Rebellion contacts and contracts.  His story was further elaborated upon by Benjamin Christopher Norton Dawe, under the name "Captain Yosarrian," through Hyperspace's What's The Story? feature. Dawe explains in his blog that Hood's involvement with the Rebel Alliance was established to explain the existence of the large, unknown, white object Hood was carrying as the Imperials began to take over. Dawe also tied Tian Chyler's story into Hood's, as Chyler's "What's the Story?" entry was published just before Hood's, by explaining that Hood was Chyler's Alliance contact.[6] Hood later received an entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. He is often nicknamed "Ice Cream Guy," "Ice Cream Maker Guy," or "Ice Cream Man," since the prop his actor holds looks similar to an ice cream maker. The What's The Story? entry finally revealed that the unknown object was a computer's memory core.[1] An action figure depicting Willrow Hood was to be released by Hasbro as part of a The Empire Strikes Back-themed wave in the fall of 2009, despite four years of opposition from Hasbro Design Director Brian Wilk. The figure was eventually released by Hasbro as part of "The Legacy Collection" of action figures.