George Lucas

George Lucas Photo

George Lucas is an American director, film producer, screenwriter and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Lucasfilm Limited and the man behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Lucas is undoubtedly one of the topmost film makers money-wise.

Lucas was born on 14th May 1944 in Modesto, California. Despite growing up in the sleepy suburb of Modesto, Lucas gained several experiences. This along with his passion for motor racing and cars became an inspiration for his film American Graffiti which got nominated for the Oscars. Before his obsession with the camera Lucas had an accident in his Fiat which changed his mind to be a racer. He went to a community college where his passion for cinematography developed even more. After some time he moved to the University of Southern California to acquire the art of filmmaking. Here he produced a Sci-Fi movie named THX-1138: 4EB. Later Warner Brothers made a full length film based on it, which was a big flop. Lucas was disturbed by this failure however he worked unswervingly on his next project called American Graffiti. Fortunately for Lucas this film was a success.

George Lucas made a Saturday Special series for children named Flash Gordon based on which he made a feature film ‘Star Wars’ which enthralled the audiences with its fantastical settings, special effects and entrancing characters. The film had cost $11 million and grossed more than $513 million worldwide. The movie’s sequels ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ (1980) and ‘The Return of the Jedi’ (1983) continued the story and the state of the art special effects used once again became successful in gripping the public. Meanwhile Lucas also worked on an adventure series ‘Indiana Jones’ which also became a box office success.

Along with the 90s came advances in technology that provided him with the opportunity to return once more to Star Wars. He embarked on his journey of creating three prequels. The first of the series was ‘Star Wars: Episode I –The Phantom of Menace’ (1999), then came ‘Star Wars: Episode II’ (2002) and third and last was ‘Revenge of the Sith’ (2005). Presently he is the executive producer for ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ which is an animated TV series airing on Cartoon Network. He was also the executive producer and story writer for the film Red Tails (2012).

George Lucas has been awarded with several awards and honors. He was presented with a Life Achievement Award by the American Film Institute in 2005. He was nominated in many categories for the Golden Globe Award, Hugo Awards, MTV Movie Award and Saturn Award. His philanthropic organization ‘The George Lucas Educational Foundation’ is a non-profit institute that boosts innovation in schools.  Lucas donated one million dollars to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial as commemoration to the American civil rights of Martin Luther King. He also donated $175 million to his alma mater film school.  In January 2012, he declared his retirement from large scale movies however said that he would continue with smaller budgeted films.