George Lucas

George Lucas spent his early life in central California on a ranch. It was a near-fatal car crash that drove him to pursue a life of making films; he says that the crash changed his views on life and ended his dreams of being a drag racer. Making his way south to USC, his demonstrable talent helped him secure access to behind the scenes filmmaking with some of the world’s biggest studios, such as Warner Bros.

Despite George Lucas’s love for the movies, the industry itself has repulsed him his entire life. His very first films revealed a stance more rooted in the counterculture than good old boys clubs. The subversive American Graffiti is hailed as a classic, but is relatively unknown by new audiences and has been dwarfed many times over by the success of his blockbuster franchises.

His reluctance to be a joiner was much in evidence following his split with the powerful Director’s Guild. The root of the conflict was his unwillingness to compromise his vision for the opening shot of the Star Wars series, which featured a striking flyover of a dreaded Star Destroyer battleship.

The Guild requires certain credits to be displayed within the first few minutes of the film—requirements Lucas refused to meet in his quest to suspend disbelief and heighten the audience’s excitement—opting to wait until the end of the film to display any credits.

George Lucas has built an unusual body of work in that his efforts have gone primarily into developing as richly as possible the world’s surrounding his monster Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Comic books, merchandise, novels and animated and live action series have served to complement his films.

Always an innovator, George Lucas has recognized both the capacity of both the market and the imagination in video and computer games. Industry insiders and gamers alike recognize LucasArts as cranking out some of the medium’s most creative entries. One of the first game makers to place strong storytelling elements alongside engaging game play, the company has provided another dimension to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones universes as well as creating several compelling original titles.

His work with special effects has had an estimable effect on the industry, raising the bar for both audio and visual presentation and empowering the visions of thousands of filmmakers. He shares friend Steven Spielberg’s reservations on the future of films, lamenting the diminished quality of storytelling and noting that his Star Wars series drew on several myths and religions in order to create a powerful underlying tale for all the action.