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'George Walton Lucas, Jr.' (born
May 14,
1944) is a four-time
Academy Award nominated
American film director,
producer, and
screenwriter famous for his
epic ''
Star Wars'' saga and
Indiana Jones films — the latter a collaboration with his friend
Steven Spielberg. He is one of American film industry's most financially successful
independent directors and producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion.
[1]
Biography
Early life and education
George Walton Lucas Jr. was born in
Modesto,
California to George Walton Lucas, Sr. (1913–1991) and Dorothy Ellinore Bomberger Lucas. His father was mainly of British and
Swiss-
German heritage and his mother was a member of a prominent Modesto family (one of her cousins is the mother of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and director of UNICEF Ann Veneman) and was mainly of
German and Scots-
Irish heritage.
His parents sold retail office supplies and owned a walnut ranch in California. His experiences growing up in the sleepy suburb of Modesto and his early passion for cars and motor racing would eventually serve as inspiration for his Oscar-nominated low-budget phenomenon, ''
American Graffiti''. Before young Lucas became obsessed with the movie camera, he wanted to be a race car driver, but a near fatal accident in his souped-up
Autobianchi Bianchina just days before his high school graduation quickly changed his mind. Instead, he attended
community college and developed a passion for cinematography and camera tricks.
During this time an
experimental filmmaker named
Bruce Baillie tacked up a bedsheet in his backyard in 1960 to screen the work of
underground,
avant-garde 16 mm filmmakers like
Jordan Belson,
Stan Brakhage and
Bruce Conner. For the next few years, Baillie's series, dubbed
Canyon Cinema, toured local coffeehouses, where art films shared the stage with folksingers and stand-up comedians.
These events became a magnet for the teenage Lucas and his boyhood friend John Plummer. The 19-year-olds began slipping away to San Francisco to hang out in jazz clubs and find news of Canyon Cinema screenings in flyers at the City Lights bookstore. Already a promising photographer, Lucas became infatuated with these abstract films.
"That's when George really started exploring," Plummer recalls. "We went to a theater on Union Street that showed art movies, we drove up to San Francisco State for a film festival, and there was an old beatnik coffeehouse in Cow Hollow with shorts that were really out there." It was a season of awakening for Lucas, who had been a D-plus slacker in high school.
At an autocross track, Lucas met his first mentor in the film industry - famed
cinematographer Haskell Wexler, a fellow aficionado of sleek racing machines. Wexler was impressed by the way the shy teenager handled a camera, cradling it low on his hips to get better angles. "George had a very good eye, and he thought visually," he recalls.
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. 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 huge inspiration was the Serbian montagist (and dean of the USC Film Department)
Slavko Vorkapich who had been a colleague of
Sergei Eisenstein's before moving to Hollywood to make stunning
montage sequences for studio features at
MGM and
Paramount. Vorkapich taught the autonomous nature of the cinematic art form, emphasizing the unique dynamic quality of movement and kinetic energy inherent in moving film images.
Lucas saw many inspiring movies 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
cinema verite ''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
cinema verite 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 create emotions purely through cinema.
After graduating with a bachelor of
fine arts in film in 1967, he tried joining the
United States Air Force as an officer, but was turned down because of his numerous speeding tickets. He was later drafted by the Army, but tests showed he had
diabetes, the disease that killed his paternal grandfather. Lucas was prescribed medication for the disease, but his symptoms are sufficiently mild that he does not require insulin and would not be considered diabetic under the disease's current classification.
[2]
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 '', 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 scholarship by
Warner Brothers to observe the making of ''
Finian's Rainbow'' (1968) which was being directed by
Francis Ford Coppola, who at the time was revered among film school students of the time as a cinema graduate who had "made it".
Film career
Lucas co-founded the studio
American Zoetrope with Coppola — whom he met during the internship at Warner Brothers — hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct outside the perceived oppressive control of the Hollywood
studio system. From the financial success of his films ''
American Graffiti'' (1973) and '' (1977), Lucas was able to set up his own studio,
Lucasfilm, in
Marin County in his native Northern California.
Skywalker Sound and
Industrial Light and Magic, the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucasfilm, respectively, have become among the most respected firms in their fields. Lucasfilm Games, later renamed to
LucasArts, is highly regarded in the gaming industry. The animation studio
Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group, one third of the Computer Division of
Lucasfilm. After years of remarkable research success, and key milestones in films such as ''
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan''
and ''
Young Sherlock Holmes''
, the group was purchased in 1986 by
Steve Jobs shortly after he left
Apple Computer. Jobs paid US $5 million to George Lucas and put US $5 million as capital into the company. The sale reflected Lucas' desire to stop the cash flow losses associated with 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 drop off in revenues from ''
Star Wars'' licenses following the release of ''. (Some twenty years later on
January 24,
2006, Disney announced that it had agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an
all-stock deal.)
Some consider ''Star Wars'' to be the first "
high concept"
film, although others feel the first was
Steven Spielberg's ''
Jaws'', released two years prior. Lucas and Spielberg had been good friends for some time and eventually worked together on several films, notably the Indiana Jones trilogy, ''
Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981), ''
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984), and ''
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989).
On a return on investment basis, ''Star Wars'' proved to be one of the most successful films of all time. During the filming of ''Star Wars'', Lucas waived his up front fee as director and negotiated to own the licensing rights — rights which the studio thought were nearly worthless. This decision earned him hundreds of millions of dollars, as he was able to directly profit from all the licensed games, toys, and collectibles created for the franchise. In 2006 ''
Forbes Magazine'' estimated Lucas' personal wealth at
US$ 3.5 billion. In 2005 Forbes.com estimated the lifetime revenue generated by the ''Star Wars'' franchise at nearly $20 billion.
On
October 3,
1994, Lucas started to write the three ''Star Wars'' prequels, and on
November 1 that year, he left the day-to-day operations of his filmmaking business and started a sabbatical to finish the prequels.
He recently announced that he would produce a
TV series about Star Wars, which would take place between episodes III and IV. Lucas purportedly also recently announced that he plans on making two additional Star Wars films that will take place after ''The Return of the Jedi'', but this rumor was debunked at Star Wars Celebration 4 in Los Angeles, California which took place May 24th-May 28th, 2007. When Steve Sansweet, Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm, was asked about the proposed two films post-''Return of the Jedi'' he stated that it was a misunderstanding of what Lucas was explaining. According to Sansweet, Lucas was referring to the two Star Wars television projects currently in production: ''Star Wars: Clone Wars'' which is a CG animated show set to debut in the Fall of 2008, and the yet to be titled Star Wars live action television series set to debut in 2009.
Awards, donations and other activities
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 magazine, http://www.edutopia.org and via documentary films.
The
American Film Institute awarded Lucas its
Life Achievement Award on
June 9,
2005.
[3] This was shortly after the release of '', to which he jokingly made reference in his acceptance speech, stating that, since he views the entire
Star Wars series as one movie, he could actually receive the award now that he had finally "gone back and finished [the] movie."
On
June 5,
2005, Lucas was named 100th "
Greatest American" by the
Discovery Channel.
Lucas was nominated for four Academy Awards:
Best Directing and
Writing for ''American Graffiti'', and
Best Directing and
Writing for ''Star Wars''. He also 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. 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.
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. [4]
George Lucas at the Time 100 2006 gala.
On
September 19,
2006, USC announced that George Lucas had donated $175 million to his
alma mater to expand the film school. It is the largest single donation to USC.
[5]
On
January 1,
2007 George Lucas served as the
Grand Marshal for the 2007
Tournament of Roses Parade, and made the coin toss at the
2007 Rose Bowl. The toss favored Lucas's alma mater, the
Trojans. His team, which came into the game as
underdogs, went on to defeat the
Michigan Wolverines (32-18).
Personal life
In 1969, Lucas married film editor
Marcia Lou Griffin, who went on to win an
Oscar for her editing work on the original (Episode IV) ''Star Wars'' film. They 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 prequels. Lucas had also been in a long relationship, engagement and all, with singer
Linda Ronstadt. He has recently been observed at several events with
Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Capital Management, who accompanied him to the 79th Academy Awards ceremony in February 2007.
Lucas was born and raised in a strongly
Methodist family. After inserting religious themes into ''Star Wars'' he would eventually come to identify strongly with the Eastern religious philosophies he studied and incorporated into his movies, which were a major inspiration for "the Force." Lucas eventually came to state that his religion was "
Christian Buddhist."
Filmography
Student at USC (1965 to 1968)
★ ''Freiheit'' (1965)
★ ''Look at Life'' (1965)
★ ''Herbie'' (1966)
★ '' (1966)
★ ''The Emperor'' (1967)
★ '' (1967)
★ ''Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town'' (1967)
★ ''6-18-67'' (1967)
★ ''Filmmaker'' (1968)
Pre-Star Wars (1971 to 1973)
★ ''THX 1138'' (1971) (director, co-writer)
★ ''American Graffiti'' (1973) (director, co-writer)
The birth of Star Wars (1977 to 1983)
★ '' (1977) (director, writer, executive producer)
★ ''The Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978) (story)
★ ''More American Graffiti'' (1979) (executive producer)
★ ''Kagemusha'' also known as ''The Shadow Warrior'' (1980) (Executive Producer of International Edition)
★ '' (1980) (story, executive producer)
★ ''Body Heat'' (1981) (uncredited executive producer)
★ ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981) (co-writer, executive producer, uncredited second unit director)
★ ''Twice Upon a Time'' (1982) (executive producer)
★ '' (1983) (executive producer, co-writer, uncredited co-director)
|
Post-Original Trilogy (1984 to 1994)
★ ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984) (co-writer, executive producer)
★ '' (1984) (executive producer, story)
★ '' (1985) (executive producer, story)
★ '' (1985) (executive producer)
★ ''Howard the Duck'' (1986) (executive producer)
★ ''Labyrinth'' (1986) (executive producer)
★ ''Captain Eo'' (1986) (producer, screenplay)
★ ''Powaqqatsi'' (1988) (executive producer)
★ ''Willow'' (1988) (writer, executive producer)
★ '' (1988) (executive producer)
★ ''The Land Before Time'' (1988) (executive producer)
★ ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989) (co-writer, executive producer)
★ ''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' (1992 - 1996) (story, executive producer)
★ ''Radioland Murders'' (1994) (co-writer, executive producer)
The return of Star Wars (1999 to 2005)
★ '' (1999) (director, writer, executive producer)
★ '' (2002) (director, co-writer, executive producer)
★ '' (2005) (director, writer, executive producer, actor [cameo])
Post-Prequel Trilogy (present)
★ ''Indiana Jones 4'' (2008) (story, executive producer)
Cameos in films and TV
★ ''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' (1984) (Cameo as "Tourist boarding plane")
★ ''Hook'' (1991) (Cameo as "Man kissing on bridge")
★ ''Beverly Hills Cop III'' (1994) (Cameo as "Disappointed Man")
★ ''Men in Black'' (1997) (Uncredited cameo as Himself)
★ ''Just Shoot Me!'' (2003 episode "It's Raining Babies" (Cameo as Himself)
★ ''The O.C.'' (2005 episode "The O.Sea") (Cameo as Himself)
★ '' (2005) (Cameo as "Baron Papanoida")
★ ''The Colbert Report'' (2006) (Cameo as Green Screen Finalist George L.)
★ ''Rollin' with Saget'' (2006) (Cameo at 1:43)
★ ''Robot Chicken'' (2007 special "Robot Chicken: Star Wars") (as the voice of Himself)
★ '' Alien Planet''
|
References
1. George Lucas ranks 243 on The World's Billionaires 2007
2.
3. 2005 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to George Lucas on USA Network
4. [1]
5. Stuart Silverstein, George Lucas Donates USC's Largest Single Gift, ''The Los Angeles Times'', September 19, 2006.
★ 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
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