Celebrity Biographies
George Lucas
He has the occasional detractor and thousands of admirers. But nobody doubts that George Lucas is more than an artist, a true business genius. Neither movies nor companies have been the same since George Lucas arrived in Hollywood. and though he directs or produces fewer than his fans would like, he is behind some of the favorite titles of millions of viewers.
George Walton Lucas, Jr. came into the world on May 14, 1944, in the Californian town of Modesto, in a not very modest family that owned a large ranch. There he spent his childhood and a large part of his youth, the future filmmaker, passionate about speed whose first vocation was to dedicate himself professionally to car racing. Unfortunately, he had to leave it because he suffered a serious accident that almost cost him his life. In the worst moments he imagined that a mystical current would envelop him and help him get ahead, which later inspired him to invent the famous “force” of Star Wars.. He studied cinematography at the University of California (UCLA), where he shot several shorts, such as “THX 1138” and “Labyrinth.” For the latter he won a scholarship to attend a Warner filming, specifically that of The Valley of the Rainbow , directed by Francis Ford Coppola . He got along well with the latter, whom he helped in the filming of It rains on my heart . In exchange, Coppola produced Lucas his feature film debut, THX 1138 , an elongated version of the aforementioned short of the same name.
Shortly after marrying editor Marcia Griffin, whom he would divorce in the 1980s, Lucas founded his famous production company, Lucasfilm Ltd, to carry out American Graffiti , a nostalgic chronicle of a group of 1960s youths who spend a night of fun. For this work, Lucas received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. During filming he became friends with one of the actors, Harrison Ford , then a complete stranger. Lucas turned to him again when he launched a completely unusual project at the time. It’s about Star Wars, a galactic adventure film inspired by Flash Gordon and other comics from his childhood. The project seemed crazy to most of the executives he interviewed, but Fox finally gave the green light to the project, which became a mass phenomenon. Interestingly, they gave him the rights to merchandising, toys and products related to the film, which provided him with huge profits. To harness the potential of the special effects technicians assembled for the film, Lucas created Industrial Light & Magic. In addition to producing the film’s famous sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi , Lucas co-created the Indiana Jones saga with Steven Spielberg .
Despite the success, Lucas did not direct for a long time, although he produced titles like Inside the Labyrinth , Howard… a new hero , Mishima and Tucker, a man and his dream , from his friend Coppola. And while Lucasfilm released a multitude of video games and the THX sound system, Lucas didn’t get behind the camera again until 1999, when he resumed the galactic saga with The Phantom Menace , followed by Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith , in which featured stars like Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor .