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• Born: 14 May 1944
• Birthplace: Modesto, California
• Best Known As: The creator of Star Wars

The Star Wars films of George Lucas have made him one of the most successful moviemakers in history. He was the co-writer and director of American Graffiti (1973, with Ron Howard), the film that kicked off a country-wide craze for 1950's nostalgia. With his clout from that success he made Star Wars, a slam-bang space adventure which broke box office records around the world. Five sequels have been made to date, including The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). With Steven Spielberg, Lucas also created the dashing archaeologist Indiana Jones; Lucas produced Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and its sequels, while Spielberg directed. Lucas's other producing credits include the animated feature The Land Before Time (1988) and a famous flop, Howard the Duck (1986). Lucas is also the head of LucasFilms and the special effects studios Industrial Light & Magic, and is famous for his Skywalker Ranch production facilities north of San Francisco. In 1992 Lucas received a special Oscar, the Irving G. Thalberg Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Lucas's wife Marcia edited American Graffiti and Star Wars; the couple were married from 1969-83.

• Born: May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California
• Occupation: Writer, Director, Actor
• Active: '70s-2000s
• Major Genres: Science Fiction, Adventure
• Career Highlights: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, American Graffiti
• First Major Screen Credit: THX 1138:4EB (1967)

Biography

Along with his friend and occasional collaborator Steven Spielberg, George Lucas was the key figure behind the American film industry's evolution (or, according to most critics, de-evolution) from cinema to spectacle during the late '70s. The mastermind behind two of the most lucrative franchises in history -- Star Wars and the Indiana Jones features, respectively -- Lucas redefined the concept of the Hollywood motion picture, shifting the focus of film away from acting and personal storytelling to special effects, production design, and rapid-fire action. Remaining at all times on the cutting edge of merchandising and technology, he forever altered the ways in which movies are perceived by audiences and studios alike.

Born May 14, 1944, in Modesto, CA, George Walton Lucas Jr.'s first love was not filmmaking, but auto racing. Only a serious wreck forced him out of the sport, and he eventually enrolled in the University of Southern California's famed film school program. There his experimental short subject THX 1138 won a number of awards and helped earn him an internship at Warner Bros. studios, where he worked as a production assistant on fellow U.S.C. alum Francis Ford Coppola's 1969 effort The Rain People. After working on the Al and David Maysles brothers' 1970 Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter, Lucas (with Coppola's financial assistance) mounted a feature-length remake of THX 1138. The end result, starring Robert Duvall, won rave reviews, and swiftly established itself as a major cult favorite.

The success of THX 1138 brought Lucas to the attention of Universal Studios, which agreed to finance 1973's nostalgic American Graffiti, a superb reminiscence on early-'60s America which launched the motion-picture careers of talents including Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, and Harrison Ford. Even more important was the film's soundtrack, a collection of vintage rock & roll hits which became an immediate best-seller and established the formula for movie soundtracks for decades to come. Shot on a miniscule budget, American Graffiti grossed over 145 million dollars, and earned a number of Academy Award nominations including nods for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Suddenly, Lucas was a major Hollywood player, and he was given much greater latitude and support in developing his next project.

That next project proved to be 1977's Star Wars, one of the most important and successful films in Hollywood history. A space opera inspired by the writings of Joseph Campbell (as well as, in no small part, Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress), it incorporated elements of mythology and religion to create a self-contained universe populated by larger-than-life characters in extraordinary situations, all achieved with the latest in cutting-edge technology. Made for just under ten million dollars, Star Wars grossed over 400 million dollars globally on just its initial run alone, creating a cottage industry of toys, comic books, and other collectibles and establishing science fiction as Hollywood's dominant genre. On the down side, it effectively ended a renaissance in American filmmaking, shifting the focus away from the personal, character-driven films of directors like Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Robert Altman to action-packed, special effects-powered events.

The overwhelming success of Star Wars did more than simply alter the kinds of films the studios looked to produce, however; it also forever changed the way films were made. The most notable aspect of the picture's storytelling was its breakneck pacing, edited by Lucas himself in tandem with his wife. Seemingly no film had ever moved so quickly, and its overwhelming success proved not only that a generation weaned on the rapid pace of television could easily absorb such an onslaught of image and sound, but that this was the kind of narrative they wanted to see on a regular basis. Studios scrambled to develop their own sci-fi projects, while Lucas himself turned to studying the pioneering special effects work of innovators like Willis O'Brien and Linwood Dunn, ultimately establishing his own F/X company, Industrial Light and Magic, to assist other filmmakers and technicians in creating the most accomplished visuals possible.

Among Lucas' most significant achievements were implementing increased frame rates and the use of optical zooms to create the illusion of lightspeed space travel. To better integrate his effects while avoiding the graininess often inherent in 35 mm film, he also adopted the 70 mm format first advocated decades earlier by Mike Todd. The work of the Industrial Light and Magic team quickly became the industry standard, constantly remaining two or three steps ahead of their competition by applying the latest technological advances to manufacture seamless visual effects. Eventually, they became among the very first to work with computer graphics. Lucas also established Skywalker Sound, a state-of-the-art post-production audio facility which later developed THX, a means of creating new levels of sophistication in motion-picture soundtracks.

Given the flurry of activity that followed in the wake of Star Wars, Lucas opted not to direct his screenplay for the film's inevitable sequel, 1980's The Empire Strikes Back, instead handing the reins over to Irvin Kershner. Widely considered the best of the Star Wars films, it was another massive hit, with a cliffhanger ending which left audiences dangling in suspense waiting for the third part of the trilogy. However, Lucas' next project, which he worked on with director Steven Spielberg, was the screenplay for 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, an adventure inspired by the old-time movie serials. Starring Harrison Ford as the renowned archaeologist Indiana Jones, Raiders was another blockbuster, later inspiring two sequels, 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as well as a short-lived television series, Young Indiana Jones.

Now working almost exclusively in the capacity of executive producer, Lucas wrapped up the Star Wars trilogy in 1983 with Return of the Jedi. His next major project was also his first unmitigated disaster: 1986's Howard the Duck. Based on a cult hit from Marvel Comics, the film was both a critical and commercial bomb, while 1988's sword-and-sorcery epic Willow failed to fare much better. Subsequently, his Lucasfilms imprint was largely absent from theaters for several years amid constant rumors of a new series of Star Wars films. However, when Lucas returned in 1994 it was with Radioland Murders, another conspicuous failure based on a script he had penned decades earlier. In 1997, he reissued the Star Wars trilogy in theaters with additional footage and newly revised special effects, all to massive box-office success. Finally, that summer he also began pre-production on the first of the hotly anticipated new Star Wars features. The first of the new trilogy, Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace, opened in May of 1999. Despite an almost unprecedented degree of marketing, rumor, and advance ticket sales, the film failed to live up to the colossal expectations that industry and media observers placed upon it. In addition to receiving unenthusiastic reviews and weak word-of-mouth, it also didn't surpass Titanic's box-office record, as many had expected it would. However, The Phantom Menace still proved to be a very profitable affair, grossing well over 400 million dollars, and legions of Lucas fans came out of theaters already impatient for the trilogy's next installment. Though Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones was greeted with largely negative reviews by critcs, longtime fans of the series nevertheless costumed-up and assembled en masse in front of multiplexes nationwide in anticipation for the next chapter in Anakin Skywalker's continuing fall to the dark side. Generally considered an improvement over the previous installment by fans, the film also made film history in being the first feature to be digitally shot and projected in theaters, prompting many to mark the days of celluliod entertainment in the traditional sense. Though it had strong adversarial competition in the form of everyones favorite web-slinging superhero Spider-Man, Attack of the Clones still managed to make a splash at the box-office. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

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American filmmaker George Lucas (born 1944) was responsible for the creation of a number of the most profitable movies in history, including the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" trilogies. Lucas is also responsible for many technical innovations in filmmaking, especially special effects.

Lucas was born in Modesto, California on May 14, 1944, the only son among George and Dorothy Lucas's four children. His father sold office supplies and equipment and owned a walnut farm. George Lucas Sr. found his son difficult to understand and quite stubborn. Lucas enjoyed racing cars and was the proud owner of a souped-up Fiat in high school. He was not a good student, and barely made passing grades. Shortly before graduating from high school, Lucas was involved in a serious car accident and nearly died from his injuries. With broken ribs, Lucas spent three months in the hospital. This experience seriously affected his outlook on life. Lucas decided that he wanted to go to art school. His parents refused to support this decision, however, so Lucas instead studied social sciences at Modesto Junior College.

While at Modesto, Lucas developed an interest in photography and film. He began making films with an 8mm camera, though he knew little about the art and its history. Lucas combined his new interest with an old one when he began to photograph car races. He also became involved in the building of race cars. One was built for Haskell Wexler, a famous cinematographer, who befriended Lucas. With the cinematographer's help, Lucas entered the film program at the University of Southern California (USC). Lucas had a variety of interests in film school. He began in animation, then moved on to cinematography and editing. Lucas was determined to succeed as a filmmaker, and produced eight student films. One of these films, 1965's THX-1138: 4EB won several awards, including a first prize at the National Student Festival. In this short film, Lucas explored his version of the future.

Lucas graduated from USC in 1967 and worked on the fringes of the film industry for several years, holding odd jobs. He spent time as a cameraman for Saul Bass, filmed part of the infamous 1968 Rolling Stones concert in Altamonte, California, and worked as an editor for documentaries produced by the United States Information Agency. While working for the USIA he met Marcia Griffin, a film editor. They married in 1969, and adopted a child in 1981. The couple divorced in 1984 and Lucas later adopted two children on his own.

Met Coppola

In 1969, Lucas won a scholarship from Warner Bros., which allowed him to watch a film being made. He was on the set of a film directed by Francis Ford Coppola entitled Finian's Rainbow. Lucas and Coppola developed a strong friendship. Lucas became an advisor on Finian's Rainbow and assisted in the editing room. This was the break he needed. Lucas worked on Coppola's next film, The Rain People, and made a documentary about the production called Filmmaker.

First Feature Film

Through Coppola's newly founded film studio and independent production company, San Francisco's American Zoetrope, Lucas made his first feature, THX-1138. Based on the short film he made as a student, the full length movie took the futurism to an extreme. With an intelligent story, and no real special effects, Lucas's version of the future was not unlike George Orwell's 1984 with some elements of his future hit, Star Wars. Though produced through Zoetrope, the financing for THX-1138 were provided in part by Warner Bros. The studio did not like the film, and wanted their money back. Coppola convinced them to reconsider. After Warner Bros. edited five minutes off the film, THX-1138 finally saw a limited release in 1971. It was never promoted by the studio. THX-1138 was not a commercial success and received mixed reviews. Critics praised the technical aspects, but found the story to be derivative of other science fiction films. In 1978, THX-1138 was re-released with the missing minutes restored, and it quickly became a cult classic.

Success with American Graffiti

In 1973, Lucas experienced his first real success as a filmmaker with American Graffiti. The film was a nostalgic look at the early 1960s as Lucas remembered it, down to the most exacting details. The story focused on one summer night in 1962, and followed teenage boys and their cars. Lucas co-wrote the script and directed it, with Coppola serving as a co-producer. American Graffiti had a budget of a little more than $750,000 and was filmed in less than a month. Initially Universal, the studio which financed the production, was not happy with the finished product. Coppola offered to buy the film and release it himself. Although the studio did not believe it would make a profit, American Graffiti was released nonetheless. It took several months for the film to build a following, but American Graffiti became the sleeper hit of the year. By 1975, the film had grossed over $50 million; by 1998, $115 million. American Graffiti was one of the most profitable films of the 1970s, and received five Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe for best comedy. Lucas was honored with several best screenplay awards.

Star Wars Redefined Blockbuster

As soon as American Graffiti was completed, Lucas began working on the script for Star Wars. He planned his space fantasy as three sequential, interrelated trilogies, of which Star Wars was the first episode of the middle trilogy. This science fiction film included aspects of westerns, soap operas, serial swashbucklers, and other genres as well. Lucas told Gerald Clarke of Time, "I wanted Star Wars to have an epic quality, so I went back to the epics. Whether they are subconscious or unconscious, whatever needs they meet, they are stories that have pleased or provided comfort to people for thousands of years." The Lucas-directed Star Wars was released to near universal praise in May 1977. His very personal vision appealed to a mass audience. The film smashed all box-office records as audiences viewed it repeatedly.

One of the reasons for the success of Star Wars was its spectacular special effects and definitive production design. As with his earlier films, Lucas paid particular attention to details. Star Wars won Academy Awards for its special effects and technical aspects. Though Star Wars was made for about $10.5 million, the film grossed $400 million worldwide before its re-release in 1997. Despite this success, the experience of making the film left Lucas exhausted. A retiring man with simple pleasures, he found directing the massive set of Star Wars to be overwhelming at times. Lucas did not direct another film for twenty years.

Despite his experience directing Star Wars, Lucas proved to be a wise businessman. He declined to take a director's fee for his work on the film, in exchange for rights to merchandising. Lucas also retained the rights to the Star Wars sequels. It was the former, however, that made him immediately rich. Lucas merchandised Star Wars in every conceivable way, through books, toys, kits, and consumer items. Between 1977 and 1980, Lucas made $500 million off of Star Wars merchandise. He managed the merchandising through his company (Lucas Film Ltd.), established in 1979. Lucas set up other companies to deal with organizing his burgeoning film empire.

By 1980, the second installment in the trilogy was released. In the production of The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas was only the executive producer and wrote the story on which the script was based. There was some critical debate over the merits of the more complex story, but many noted that the special effects were technically better. The Empire Strikes Back earned $365 million at the box office. After his hands-off approach, Lucas returned to a more active role in 1983's The Return of the Jedi. He co-wrote the script with Lawrence Kasden, and again served as executive producer. Reviews were even more mixed than with The Empire Strikes Back. While special effects were excellent, critics thought they were overused and overwhelmed the characters and the story. As a whole, the trilogy grossed $1 billion. Their merchandising licenses, however, brought in over $3 billion.

Created Indiana Jones

At the time Lucas began developing his concept for Star Wars, he had the idea that eventually led to another trilogy of films. The Indiana Jones series was developed as an homage to Saturday matinee serials and adventure films of the 1940s. Lucas conceived the story for the first Indiana Jones movie, entitled Raiders of the Lost Ark, and served as producer. His story again found mass appeal, both from critics and audiences. Lucas's involvement decreased in the next two Indiana Jones movies. He wrote the story for 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and produced Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Both of these films were not as popular as the first installment, with many critics finding the films to be derivative. Lucas used the Indiana Jones character in a 1992 series he produced for television. Entitled The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Lucas conceived of all the stories, but the show only lasted for one season.

Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Lucas primarily worked as a producer, with mixed success. Movies such as Labyrinth (1985), Howard the Duck (1986), and Radioland Murders (1994) were box office failures. Other films were more successful creatively and at the box office, such as Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) and Willow. (1988)

With profits from his film successes and Lucas Film, Ltd., Lucas founded Skywalker Ranch, a production facility near the Bay Area in California. Lucas based all of his companies there, which covered every aspect of film. One in particular changed the face of the film industry. Originally founded to handle the special effects for Star Wars, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) advanced film technology through research and development. ILM branched out to do innovative special effects for other movies, such as Star Trek and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. ILM was responsible for THX, a digital sound system found in many theaters. Despite his contributions to the film industry, some critics believe that the emphasis on special effects overwhelmed the stories they were supposed to enhance. Lucas disagreed telling Richard Zoglin of Time, "Special effects are just a way of visualizing something on screen. They have expanded the limits of storytelling enormously."

Returned to Star Wars

Though many doubted the other two Star Wars trilogies would ever be made, in 1994, Lucas began writing the scripts for the prequel trilogy. To prepare audiences, Lucas and Twentieth Century Fox reissued enhanced "special editions" versions of the original Star Wars trilogy in theaters beginning in 1997. Using the technology developed by his companies, Lucas fixed some of the errors in the first films and included scenes that technological limitations had previously prevented. In total, he added four and a half minutes to Star Wars.

In May 1999, Lucas released The Phantom Menace, the first installment of the prequel trilogy. Lucas directed this film and wrote the script. Because of the success of the Star Wars trilogy, a bidding war developed over the rights to release what would be guaranteed profit makers as well as the rights to make the toys. Because Lucas tapped into a childhood consciousness that was universal, his films have changed the world's standards for entertainment.

Further Reading

Barson, Michael, The Illustrated Who's Who of Hollywood Directors, Volume 1: The Sound Era, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.

Curran, Daniel, Guide to American Cinema, 1965-1995, Greenwood Press, 1998.

International Directory of Films and Filmmakers 2: Directors, edited by Laurie Collier Hillstrom, St. James Press, 1997.

Monaco, James, The Encyclopedia of Film, Perigee, 1991.

Quinlan, David, The Illustrated Guide to Film Directors, Barnes& Noble Books, 1983.

World Film Directors: Volume II, edited by John Wakeman, 1945-85, H.W. Wilson, 1988.

Advertising Age, August 31, 1998.

Esquire, December 1996.

Forbes, March 11, 1996; October 14, 1996; September 22, 1997.

Fortune, October 6, 1980; August 5, 1985; August 18, 1997.

Inc., June 15, 1995.

Life, June 30, 1983.

Newsweek, May 31, 1993; May 13, 1996; January 20, 1997.

The Other Side, March-April 1997.

People Weekly, June 23, 1983; March 26, 1984; February 26, 1996; November 30, 1998.

Time, May 19, 1980; May 23, 1983; June 27, 1983; June 16, 1986; September 22, 1986; March 2, 1992; September 30, 1996; February 10, 1997.

Variety, July 20, 1998; July 27, 1998.

For more information on George Lucas, visit Britannica.com.

1944–, American film director, producer, and writer, b. Modesto, Calif. Although Lucas's first film, THX-1138 (1970), was not successful, his next two, American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars (1977), set the course for filmmaking in the next decade. The first made song scores an acceptable alternative to symphonic orchestrations; the second presented a simple action scenario bolstered by amazing special effects. Both were tremendously successful, the latter becoming the first film to top $200 million at the box office. Lucas then formed Lucasfilm (which has since become a business conglomerate) and produced two further installments of the Star Wars tale, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). In both films he promoted a special effects-driven aesthetic through the formation of Industrial Light and Magic, a company that produces state-of-the-art effects for films.

Lucas also produced the popular Indiana Jones trilogy, which mixed spectacular stunt work with a seriallike content of inescapable traps from which the stalwart hero escapes. In addition, he has provided financial sponsorship for more traditional work, such as Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985). In 1987 he won a special Academy Award for lifetime achievement. By the early 1990s he controlled a large, multifaceted entertainment business empire. Lucas has also produced, written, and directed three additional installments of the Star Wars cycle, “prequels” entitled The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), and Revenge of the Sith (2005).