Background

Ethnicity: George Lucas has English, Scottish, Dutch, French, and Swiss-German roots on his father’s side and is of German and Swiss-German descent on his mother’s side.

George Lucas was born on May 14, 1944, in Modesto, California, the United States, to Dorothy Ellinore Lucas and George Walton Lucas. His father was the owner of a stationery store. He was raised in the Central Valley town neighborhood of Modesto alongside his three siblings.

Education

Since his younger days, Lucas was passionate about cars and motor racing. This reflected in his future films as well. He spent most of his school days by taking part in racing competitions and underground circuits. He initially dreamt of making a career in car racing but changed his mind after he met with a near-fatal car accident on June 12, 1962, just a few days before his high school graduation.

After recovering from a three-month hospital stay, Lucas decided that he wanted to go to art school. His parents refused to pay for it, so he instead enrolled at Modesto Junior College to study social sciences. 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.

Following the advice of a friend, he transferred to the University of Southern California's film school. 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. Lucas obtained a degree in fine arts in film studies in 1967.

Career

Lucas began his film career in the late 1960s while attending the University of Southern California. He produced a short futuristic sci-fi film called Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB and garnered a comfortable spot under the wing of Francis Ford Coppola. The following year, Lucas worked as Coppola’s assistant on The Rain People and made a short film entitled Film Maker about the directing of the movie.

Lucas and Coppola shared a common vision of starting an independent film production company where a community of writers, producers, and directors could share ideas. In 1969, the two filmmakers moved to Northern California, where they founded American Zoetrope. The company’s first project was Lucas’s full-length version of THX:1138. Coppola convinced Warner Brothers to make a feature-length version of the film, and although a few critics recognized some philosophical depth behind all the technical wizardry, THX 1138 (re-titled) flopped terribly in its 1971 release.

Although intimidated by the failure of his first film, THX 1138, Lucas went back to work on his next project, American Graffiti, which focused on one summer night in 1962, following teenage boys and their cars. Lucas co-wrote the script and directed it, with Coppola serving as a co-producer. American Graffiti was filmed in less than a month for a little over $750,000. Although Universal, the studio that had paid for the production, did not believe American Graffiti would make a profit, by several months after its release it had become the surprise hit of the year. It was one of the most profitable films of the 1970s and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Lucas was honored with several best screenplay awards.

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.

Released in May 1977, Star Wars blew audiences away with its awe-inspiring special effects, fantastical landscapes, captivating characters (the erroneous pairing of two bumbling droids providing, ironically, the most heart and comic relief) and the familiar resonance of popular myth and fairy tale. Made for $11 million, the film grossed over $513 million worldwide during its original release.

It received very positive reviews. His very personal vision also appealed to a mass audience. The film smashed all box office records, and many people went to see it more than once. Lucas went on to write the stories for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which he also executive-produced. In 1980, he was the executive producer of Raiders of the Lost Ark, directed by Steven Spielberg, which won five Academy Awards.

In 1980 the second film in Lucas's trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, was released. Lucas was the executive producer (one who pays for the release of a movie) and wrote the story on which the script was based. Although some criticized the story, many noted that the special effects were better. Lucas returned to a more active role in 1983's The Return of the Jedi. He co-wrote the script and again served as executive producer. While the special effects were excellent, critics thought they took attention away from the characters and the story. Still, all three films together brought in $1 billion. Sales of official merchandise brought in over $3 billion.

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 worked mainly as a producer. Movies such as Howard the Duck (1986) and Radioland Murders (1994) were failures; others, such as Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) and Willow (1988), were more successful.

Lucas, with profits from his films and LucasFilm, Ltd., founded Skywalker Ranch, a production house (a place where a movie is edited for theatrical release) in California. Lucas based all of his companies there; one, in particular, changed the face of the film industry. Originally created to handle the special effects for Star Wars, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) improved film technology (applied science) through research and development. ILM branched out to do special effects for other movies, such as Star Trek and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. ILM was also responsible for THX, an improved sound system found in many movie theaters.

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.

Lucas followed with Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), both of which he also directed, before returning to an executive producer role on the fourth Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), which Spielberg directed. Lucas created two animated television series, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003-2005) and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2013). He was then executive producer of Red Tails (2012), an action-packed account of the Tuskegee Airmen and his first film in nearly two decades that was not affiliated with either the Star Wars or Indiana Jones franchises.

Apart from the films he directed and produced, among them some of the most-profitable productions in Hollywood history, Lucas enjoyed as part of his legacy Lucasfilm’s network of properties, studios, and subsidiary companies. In 2012 the Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion and announced that it would make a third Star Wars trilogy. The first entry, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, was released in 2015. Subsequent films included Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) as well as A Star Wars Story series, which comprised stand-alone movies.

George Lucas is currently working as the executive producer for the fifth film of the famous Indiana Jones film series, which is slated for release in 2022.

Achievements

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  George Lucas is one of the most financially successful filmmakers in the American film industry and has been personally nominated for four Academy Awards. Some of his films are among the 100 highest-grossing films in the box office of North America, adjusted for the inflation of ticket prices.
  
  George Lucas, along with Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, and Brian De Palma, is considered one of the most important and influential filmmakers of the New Hollywood era, a period that is considered one of the most important phases of cinema from the artistic point of view.
  
  Lucas created the Star Wars film series, which became immensely successful at the box office. The success of the film series resulted in the creation of video games, comic books, and television series. He also created the famous movie character Indiana Jones, which is one of cinema’s most revered characters.
  
  Lucas was named one of the 100 Greatest Americans by The Discovery Channel in September 2008. Lucas was named a Kennedy Center honoree in 2015 and was inducted as a Disney Legend.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom

    (After barely escaping a raging Shanghai nightclub brawl, ...)

    1984
  • Radioland Murders

    (From the mind of George Lucas comes this star-studded, ma...)

    1994
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

    (Steven Spielberg and George Lucas bring you the greatest ...)

    2008
  • American Graffiti

    (Coming of age classic, directed by George Lucas, followin...)

    1973
  • Star Wars: A New Hope

    (Young farm boy Luke Skywalker is thrust into a galaxy of ...)

    1977
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars

    (Star Wars takes on a dazzling new look in the first-ever ...)

    2008
  • Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

    (Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn rescue Queen...)

    1999
  • Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

    (When Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker is assigned to prot...)

    2002
  • THX 1138

    (A story of a computerized subterranean world, where sex i...)

    1971
  • Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

    (The Rebels scatter after the Empire attacks their base on...)

    1980
  • Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

    (The Nazis are on the trail of the Holy Grail and have kid...)

    1989
  • Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

    (The Empire prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more po...)

    1983
  • Strange Magic

    (A madcap fairy tale musical of a fanciful forest turned u...)

    2015
  • Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

    (Clone Wars rage across the galaxy. A sinister Sith Lord s...)

    2005

Religion

Lucas grew up in a Methodist family. He is also interested in the Eastern religious philosophies and considers himself a Buddhist Methodist.

Politics

In the 2008 Presidential elections, George supported Barack Obama and attended the We Are One Presidential Pre-Inaugural Concert in 2009. In 2016, he supported Hillary Clinton.

Views

Lucas is part of the Giving Pledge, an organization that commits the world’s wealthiest people to donate at least half of their fortunes to charity. Lucas signed the Giving Pledge in 2010, emphasizing that he plans to donate his wealth to improving education.

He is also the founder of the non-profit organization The George Lucas Educational Foundation, which aims to foster innovation in schools. Created in the early 1990s, the organization encourages the use of project-based and team-based learning, among other education reforms. His other charitable donations include $1 million toward building the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, D.C. in 2005, and $175 million to his alma mater, the University of Southern California film school, in 2006.

Quotations: "If you can tune into the fantasy life of an 11-year-old girl, you can make a fortune in this business."

"I am simply trying to struggle through life; trying to do God's bidding."

Membership

Lucas is an honorary member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

• 

  Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers , United States

  October, 2014 - present

Personality

Lucas is a big fan of American illustrator and painter Norman Rockwell, and he’s amassed quite the collection. In 2010, he and Steven Spielberg lent 57 of Rockwell’s paintings and drawings to the Smithsonian for a special exhibit. He also admitted that mythologist Joseph Campbell is one of his greatest influencers.

His nickname in high school was Luke. This later became the name of the hero of his original Star Wars trilogy, Luke Skywalker.

Physical Characteristics: George Lucas suffers from diabetes.

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Joseph Campbell

• Politicians

  Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

• Writers

  Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe,Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

• Artists

  Norman Rockwell

• Sport & Clubs

  Racing

Connections

George Lucas met editor Marcia Griffin in 1967 when the two of them were just getting started in the movie industry. By the next year, the two of them were already engaged. Together they adopted a girl named Amanda Lucas. George and Marcia divorced in 1983. Following their split, Lucas also adopted two more children, Katie and Jett.

He was romantically involved with singer Linda Ronstadt. He also dated Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments and chair of DreamWorks Animation. He got married to Mellody Hobson in 2013. They have a daughter, born through a gestational carrier.

Father:

George Walton Lucas Sr.

Mother:

Dorothy Ellinore Bomberger

ex-wife:

Marcia Lucas

George and Marcia didn’t exactly have the most loving relationship in the world. Marcia didn’t particularly like George’s first movie, THX 1138. According to Marcia, George didn’t take the sentiment well: "I never cared for THX because it left me cold. When the studio didn’t like the film, I wasn’t surprised. But George just said to me, I was stupid and knew nothing. Because I was just a Valley Girl. He was the intellectual."

Daughter:

Amanda Lucas

Amanda Lucas is a professional mixed martial arts fighter.

Daughter:

Everest Hobson Lucas

Son:

Jett Lucas

Daughter:

Katie Lucas

ex-girlfriend:

Linda Ronstadt

In the 1980s, George was in a relationship with singer Linda Ronstadt. They were even engaged for a while.

Wife:

Mellody Hobson

In 2006, George started dating president of Ariel Investments and chair of DreamWorks Animation, Mellody Hobson. In January 2013, the couple announced their engagement.

After 4 months, on June 22, 2013, the couple tied the knot at Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California. The couple has a daughter named Everest Hobson Lucas, via gestational carrier.

Friend:

Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are best friends. Lucas got the idea to create Indiana Jones while on vacation with his Steven Spielberg in Hawaii. Lucas decided to produce while Spielberg would direct. The movie turned out to be a great success.

colleague:

Ewan McGregor

colleague:

Samuel Jackson

colleague:

Mark Hamill

colleague:

Harrison Ford

colleague:

Carrie Fisher

References

• George Lucas: A Life
• George Lucas - Creating An Empire