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George Lucas

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George Lucas cropped 2009
George Lucas
Background information
Born: George Walton Lucas, Jr.
May 14, 1944 (age 72)
Modesto, California, United States
Died:
Cause of death:
Alternate names:
Occupation(s): Chairman & CEO of Lucasfilm
Years active: 1965-present
Spouse(s): Marcia Lucas (1969-1983)
Mellody Hobson (2013-present)
Partner(s):
Children: Amanda (with Marcia), Katie, Jett, and Everest (with Hobson)

George Walton Lucas, Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American film producer, screenwriter, director, and entrepreneur. He founded Lucasfilm Limited and led the company as chairman and chief executive before selling it to The Walt Disney Company on October 30, 2012.[1] He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones. Lucas is one of the American film industry's most successful filmmakers financially.

Early life and education[]

George Lucas was born in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore Lucas (née Bomberger; 1913-1989) and George Walton Lucas, Sr. (1913–1991), who owned a stationery store.[2][3]

Lucas grew up in the Central Valley town of Modesto, and his early passion for cars and motor racing would eventually serve as inspiration for his USC student film 1:42.08, as well as his Oscar-nominated low-budget phenomenon, American Graffiti. Long before Lucas became obsessed with film making, he wanted to be a race-car driver, and he spent most of his high school years racing on the underground circuit at fairgrounds and hanging out at garages. On June 12, 1962, while driving his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina, another driver broadsided him, flipping over his car, nearly killing him, causing him to lose interest in racing as a career.[4][5] He attended Modesto Junior College, where he studied, amongst other subjects, anthropology, sociology and literature.[4] He also began filming with an 8 mm camera, including filming car races.[4]

At this time, Lucas and his friend John Plummer became interested in Canyon Cinema: screenings of underground, avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage and Bruce Conner.[6] Lucas and Plummer also saw classic European films of the time, including Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, Francois Truffaut's Jules et Jim, and Federico Fellini's 8½.[6] "That's when George really started exploring," Plummer said.[6] Through his interest in autocross racing, Lucas met renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler, another race enthusiast.[6][4] Wexler, later to work with Lucas on several occasions, was impressed by Lucas' talent.[4] "George had a very good eye, and he thought visually," he recalled.[6]

Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, George Lucas shared a dorm room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood and John Milius, they became a clique of film students known as The Dirty Dozen. He also became good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg. Lucas was deeply influenced by the Filmic Expression course taught at the school by filmmaker Lester Novros which concentrated on the non-narrative elements of Film Form like color, light, movement, space, and time. Another inspiration was the Serbian montagist (and dean of the USC Film Department) Slavko Vorkapich, a film theoretician who made stunning montage sequences for Hollywood studio features at MGM, RKO, and Paramount. Vorkapich taught the autonomous nature of the cinematic art form, emphasizing the unique dynamic quality of movement and kinetic energy inherent in motion pictures.

Lucas saw many inspiring films in class, particularly the visual films coming out of the National Film Board of Canada like Arthur Lipsett's 21-87, the French-Canadian cameraman Jean-Claude Labrecque's cinéma vérité 60 Cycles, the work of Norman McLaren, and the documentaries of Claude Jutra. Lucas fell madly in love with pure cinema and quickly became prolific at making 16 mm nonstory noncharacter visual tone poems and cinéma vérité with such titles as Look at Life, Herbie, 1:42.08, The Emperor, Anyone Lived in a Pretty (how) Town, Filmmaker, and 6-18-67. He was passionate and interested in camerawork and editing, defining himself as a filmmaker as opposed to being a director, and he loved making abstract visual films that created emotions purely through cinema.[6]

After graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in film in 1967, he tried joining the United States Air Force as an officer, but he was immediately turned down because of his numerous speeding tickets. He was later drafted by the Army for military service in Vietnam, but he was exempted from service after medical tests showed he had diabetes, the disease that killed his paternal grandfather.

In 1967, Lucas re-enrolled as a USC graduate student in film production. Working as a teaching instructor for a class of U.S. Navy students who were being taught documentary cinematography, Lucas directed the short film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which won first prize at the 1967–68 National Student Film Festival, and was later adapted into his first full-length feature film, THX 1138. Lucas was awarded a student scholarship by Warner Brothers to observe and work on the making of a film of his choosing. The film he chose was Finian's Rainbow (1968) which was being directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who was revered among film school students of the time as a cinema graduate who had "made it" in Hollywood. In 1969, George Lucas was one of the camera operators on the classic Rolling Stones concert film Gimme Shelter.

Film career[]

George Lucas is a filmmaker, with a film career dominated by writing and production. Aside from the nine short films he made in the 1960s, he also directed six major features. His work from 1971 and 1977 as a writer-director, which established him as a major figure in Hollywood, consists of just three films: THX 1138, American Graffiti, and Star Wars. There was a 22-year hiatus between the original Star Wars film and his only other feature-film directing credits, the three Star Wars prequels.

George Lucas and Chandran Rutnam

George Lucas with Chandran Rutnam.

Lucas acted as a writer and executive producer on another successful Hollywood film franchise, the Indiana Jones series. In addition, he established his own effects company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), to make the original Star Wars film. The company is now one of the most successful in the industry.

Lucas co-founded the studio American Zoetrope with Coppola—whom he met during his internship at Warner Brothers—hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct outside the perceived oppressive control of the Hollywood studio system [citation needed]. His first full-length feature film produced by the studio, THX 1138, was not a success. Lucas then created his own company, Lucasfilm, Ltd., and directed American Graffiti (1973). His new-found wealth and reputation enabled him to develop a story set in space. Even so, he encountered difficulties getting Star Wars made. It was only because Alan Ladd, Jr., at Fox Studios liked American Graffiti that he forced through a production and distribution deal for the film, which ended up restoring Fox to financial stability after a number of flops.[7]

Star Wars quickly became the highest-grossing film of all-time, displaced five years later by Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. After the success of American Graffiti and prior to the beginning of filming on Star Wars, Lucas was encouraged to renegotiate for a higher fee for writing and directing Star Wars than the $150,000 agreed.[4] He declined to do so, instead negotiating for advantage in some of the as-yet-unspecified parts of his contract with Fox, in particular ownership of licensing and merchandising rights (for novelizations, T-shirts, toys, etc.) and contractual arrangements for sequels.[4] The studio were unconcerned to relinquish these rights, as its last major attempt in the field, with the 1967 flop, Doctor Dolittle, had proved a discouraging failure.[8] Lucas exploited merchandising rights wisely, and Lucasfilm has earned hundreds of millions of dollars from licensed games, toys, and collectibles created for the franchise.[4]

Over the two decades after the first Star Wars film, Lucas worked extensively as a writer and/or producer, including the many Star Wars spinoffs made for film, TV, and other media. He acted as executive producer for the next two Star Wars films, commissioning Irvin Kershner to direct The Empire Strikes Back, and Richard Marquand to direct Return of the Jedi, while receiving a story credit on the former and sharing a screenwriting credit with Lawrence Kasdan on the latter. Lucas also acted as executive producer and story writer on all four of the Indiana Jones films, which he convinced his colleague and good friend, Steven Spielberg, to direct. Other notable projects as a producer or executive producer in this period include Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980), Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat (1981), Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986), Godfrey Reggio's Powaqqatsi (1986) and the animated film The Land Before Time (1988). There were also some less successful projects, however, including More American Graffiti (1979), the ill-fated Howard the Duck (1986), which was arguably [citation needed] the biggest flop of his career; Willow (1988, which Lucas also wrote); and Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Between 1992 and 1996, Lucas served as executive producer for the television spinoff The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. In 1997, for the 20th anniversary of Star Wars, Lucas went back to his trilogy to enhance and add certain scenes using newly available digital technology. These new versions were released in theaters as the Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition. For DVD releases in 2004, the series received further revisions to make them congruent with the prequel trilogy. Besides the additions to the Star Wars franchise, in 2004 a George Lucas Director's Cut of THX 1138 was released, with the film re-cut and containing a number of CGI revisions.

George Lucas 66ème Festival de Venise (Mostra) 6

Lucas at the Venice Film Festival in 2009.

The animation studio Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group [citation needed], one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm. Pixar's early computer graphics research resulted in groundbreaking effects in films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan[9] and Young Sherlock Holmes,[9] and the group was purchased in 1986 by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple after a power struggle at Apple Computer. Jobs paid US $5 million to Lucas and put US $5 million as capital into the company. The sale reflected Lucas' desire to stop the cash flow losses from his 7-year research projects associated with new entertainment technology tools, as well as his company's new focus on creating entertainment products rather than tools. A contributing factor was cash-flow difficulties following Lucas' 1983 divorce concurrent with the sudden dropoff in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi.

The sound-equipped system, THX Ltd, was founded by Lucas and Tomlinson Holman.[10] The company was formerly owned by Lucasfilm, and contains equipment for stereo, digital, and theatrical sound for films, and music. Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light & Magic, are the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucasfilm, while Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, produces products for the gaming industry.

In 1994, Lucas began work on the screenplay for the prequel Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which would be the first film he had directed in over two decades. The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, beginning a new trilogy of Star Wars films. Lucas also directed Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith which were released in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Numerous critics considered these films inferior to the previously released Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.[11][12][13]

In 2008, he reteamed with Spielberg for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Lucas previously serves as executive producer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated television series on Cartoon Network, which was preceded by a feature film of the same name. He is also working on a so-far untitled Star Wars live-action series.

For the film Red Tails (2012), Lucas serves as story-writer and executive producer. He also took over direction of reshoots while director Anthony Hemingway worked on other projects. Lucas is working on his first musical, an untitled CGI project being produced at Skywalker Ranch. Kevin Munroe is directing and David Berenbaum wrote the screenplay.[14]

Semi-retirement[]

“I’m moving away from the business... From the company, from all this kind of stuff.”
——George Lucas on his future career plans.[15]

In January 2012, Lucas announced his retirement from producing large-scale blockbuster films and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features. He did not specify whether or not this would affect his involvement with a fifth installment of the Indiana Jones series.[15][16][17] In June 2012, it was announced that producer Kathleen Kennedy, a long-term collaborator with Steven Spielberg and a producer of the Indiana Jones films, had been appointed as co-chair of Lucasfilm Ltd.[18][19] It was reported that Kennedy would work alongside Lucas, who would remain chief executive and serve as co-chairman for at least one year, after which she would succeed him as the company's sole leader.[18][19] With the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, Lucas is currently Disney's second largest single shareholder after the estate of Steve Jobs.[15][15]

Philanthropy[]

In 1991, The George Lucas Educational Foundation was founded as a nonprofit operating foundation to celebrate and encourage innovation in schools. The Foundation's content is available under the brand Edutopia, in an award-winning web site, social media and via documentary films. Lucas, through his foundation, was one of the leading proponents of the E-rate program in the universal service fund,[20] which was enacted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. On June 24, 2008, Lucas testified before the United States House of Representatives subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet as the head of his Foundation to advocate for a free wireless broadband educational network.[21]

In 2005, Lucas gave US$1 million to help build the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to commemorate American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.[22]

On September 19, 2006, USC announced that George Lucas had donated $175–180 million to his alma mater to expand the film school. It is the largest single donation to USC and the largest gift to a film school anywhere.[23] Previous donations led to the already existing George Lucas Instructional Building and Marcia Lucas Post-Production building.[24][25]

Lucas has pledged to give half of his fortune to charity as part of an effort called The Giving Pledge led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to persuade America's richest individuals to donate their financial wealth to charities.[26][27]

Time 100 George Lucas

Lucas at the Time 100 2006 gala

Personal life[]

In 1969, Lucas married film editor Marcia Lou Griffin, who went on to win an Academy Award for her editing work on the original Star Wars film. George and Marcia adopted a daughter, Amanda, in 1981, and divorced in 1983. Lucas has since adopted two more children: Katie, born in 1988, and Jett, born in 1993. All three of his children have appeared in the three Star Wars prequels, as has Lucas himself. During the 1980s, Lucas was in a relationship with singer Linda Ronstadt. He has been dating Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments and chair of Dreamworks Animation, since 2006 and she has accompanied him to several events including the 79th Academy Awards ceremony in February 2007, an American Film Institute event in October 2007, the 2008 Cannes Film Festival held in May, and the 2010 Golden Globes.[28][29][30] Lucas and Hobson announced their engagement in January 2013.[31]

Lucas was born and raised in a Methodist family.[4] The religious and mythical themes in Star Wars were inspired by Lucas' interest in the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell,[32] and he would eventually come to identify strongly with the Eastern religious philosophies he studied and incorporated into his films, which were a major inspiration for "the Force." Lucas eventually came to state that his religion was "Buddhist Methodist". Lucas resides in Marin County.[33][34]

Lucas is a major collector of the American illustrator and painter Norman Rockwell. A collection of 57 Rockwell paintings and drawings owned by Lucas and fellow Rockwell collector and film director Stephen Spielberg were displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from July 2, 2010 to January 2, 2011 in an exhibition titled Telling Stories.[35]

Lucas has said that he is a fan of Seth MacFarlane's hit TV show Family Guy. MacFarlane has said that Lucasfilm was extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works.[36]

Filmography[]

Main article: George Lucas filmography

Awards and Nominations[]

The American Film Institute awarded Lucas its Life Achievement Award on June 9, 2005.[37] This was shortly after the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, about which he joked stating that, since he views the entire Star Wars series as one film, he could actually receive the award now that he had finally "gone back and finished the movie."

Lucas was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Directing and Writing for American Graffiti, and Best Directing and Writing for Star Wars. He received the Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1991. He appeared at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony in 2007 with Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola to present the Best Director award to their friend Martin Scorsese. During the speech, Spielberg and Coppola talked about the joy of winning an Oscar, making fun of Lucas, who has not won a competitive Oscar.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Lucas in 2006, its second "Film, Television, and Media" contributor, after Spielberg.[38][39]Template:Efn

The Discovery Channel named him one of the 100 "Greatest Americans" in September 2008.[40]

Lucas served as Grand Marshal for the Tournament of Roses Parade and made the ceremonial coin toss at the Rose Bowl, New Year's Day 2007. In 2009 he was one of 13 California Hall of Fame inductees in The California Museum's yearlong exhibit.

Year Award Category Film Result[41]
1973 Academy Award Best Director American Graffiti Nominated
Best Writing American Graffiti Nominated
Golden Globe Award Best Director American Graffiti Nominated
1978 Academy Award Best Director Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Nominated
Best Writing Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Nominated
Evening Standard British Film Award Best Film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Won
Golden Globe Award Best Director Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Nominated
Saturn Award Best Director Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Won
Best Writing Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Won
1980 Hugo Award Best Dramatic Presentation Shared with Philip Kaufman, Lawrence Kasdan, Steven Spielberg Raiders of the Lost Ark Won
1983 Hugo Award Best Dramatic Presentation Shared with Lawrence Kasdan and Richard Marquand Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Won
Saturn Award Best Writing Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Nominated
1988 Golden Raspberry Award Worst Screenplay Willow Nominated
1990 Hugo Award Best Dramatic Presentation Shared with Jeffrey Boam, Menno Meyjes, Philip Kaufman and Steven Spielberg Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Won
1999 Golden Raspberry Award Worst Director Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Nominated
Worst Picture Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Nominated
Saturn Award Best Director Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Nominated
2002 Golden Raspberry Award Worst Director Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Nominated
Worst Screenplay Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Won
Saturn Award Best Director Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Nominated
2005 Empire Award Best Film Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Nominated
Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Won
MTV Movie Award Best International Movie Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Nominated
Saturn Award Best Director Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Nominated
Best Writing Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Nominated

See also[]

Template:Portal bar

Notelist[]

Template:Notelist

References[]

  1. ↑ Breaking News: Disney Acquires Lucasfilm for $4.05 Billion - STAR WARS: Episode 7 in 2015!
  2. ↑ George Lucas Biography (1944–)
  3. ↑ No. 83 Royal Descents, Notable Kin, and Printed Sources: A Third Set of Ten Hollywood Figures (or Groups Thereof), with a Coda on Two Directors
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named pollockskywalking
  5. ↑ "Filmmaker George Lucas' Near-Death Experience", oprah.com, 22 Jan 2012. Retrieved 2012-10-13.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named WiredMay2005
  7. ↑ Tom Shone: Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Summer (2004). London, Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 0-7432-6838-5. Chapter 2.
  8. ↑ Harris, Mark (2008). Pictures at a Revolution: Five Films and the Birth of the New Hollywood. Penguin Press, 378-9. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Template:Cite document
  10. ↑ Truta, Filip Truta (May 5, 2011). "Apple Hires Sound Systems Inventor Tomlinson Holman". Softpedia.
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace – Rotten Tomatoes
  13. ↑ Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones – Rotten Tomatoes
  14. ↑ 'George Lucas producing a CGI musical! Featuring ... fairies?. Heat Vision Blog (January 27, 2010).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "NYT Lucas" defined multiple times with different content Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "NYT Lucas" defined multiple times with different content
  16. ↑ George Lucas Ready to Retire From Blockbuster Filmmaking. /Film (January 17, 2012). Retrieved on January 17, 2012.
  17. ↑ George Lucas Promises Retirement (From Blockbusters... Not Counting Indiana Jones 5). Movie Line (January 17, 2012). Retrieved on January 17, 2012.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Kathleen Kennedy to become Co-Chair of Lucasfilm Ltd.", StarWars.com, June 1, 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Richard Verrier and Ben Fritz, "Kathleen Kennedy to helm Lucasfilm as George Lucas phases out", Los Angeles Times, June 02, 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
  20. ↑ 2008 Rep. Ed Markey's opening statement on universal service
  21. ↑ Nate Anderson. Universal Service Fund should be "blown up" like Death Star. Ars Technica.
  22. ↑ "Star Wars creator George Lucas donates $1 Million for Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Project", Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, October 20, 2005. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
  23. ↑ Stuart Silverstein, George Lucas Donates USC's Largest Single Gift, The Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2006.
  24. ↑ George Lucas Instructional Building, USC School of Cinematic Arts.
  25. ↑ Marcia Lucas Post-Production, USC School of Cinematic Arts.
  26. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  27. ↑ The Giving Pledge. Retrieved on August 8, 2010.
  28. ↑ Kapos, Shia (December 3, 2007). Taking Names: Stars in Chicago, but finding love elsewhere. Chicago Business. Retrieved on May 19, 2008.
  29. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  30. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  31. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  32. ↑ PBS – American Masters: George Lucas – About George Lucas
  33. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  34. ↑ The Religious Affiliation of Director George Lucas.
  35. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  36. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  37. ↑ 2005 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to George Lucas on USA Network
  38. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named sfhof2006
  39. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named sfhof2006-b
  40. ↑ Discovery Channel :: Greatest American: Top 100. Dsc.discovery.com (September 10, 2008). Retrieved on December 31, 2010.
  41. ↑ George Lucas (I) - Awards. IMDb. Retrieved on January 20, 2013.

Sources[]

  • Rinzler, J.W. "The Making of Star Wars, The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film", Ebury Press, 2007.
  • Silberman, Steve "Life After Darth" Wired, November, 2005
  • "George Lucas: Interviews" University Press of Mississippi (February 16, 2007)
  • The Cinema of George Lucas (Hardcover) by Marcus Hearn, Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (March 1, 2005)
  • Michael Rubin, "Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution" (2005) [ISBN 0937404675]

External links[]

Wikipedia
 This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at George Lucas. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Lucasfilm Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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