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George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. was born May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California. He was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, and his father was a stationery store owner. He had was one of four children.
Lucas attended Downey High School in Modesto. He loved drag car racing and planned on becoming a professional racecar driver. He had a very bad car accident right after graduating high school. It was while he was in the hospital recovering from his injuries that Lucas came up with the concept of the "Force." Instead, he attended Modesto Jr. College and then enrolled in the University of Southern California film school, where he made several short films. One of the films (THX-1138: 4EB (Electronic Labyinth) won first prize at the 1967-68 National Student Film Festival.
Lucas was awarded a scholarship in 1967 by Warner Bros. to observe a film being made by director Francis Ford Coppola. Lucas and Coppola became good friends and put together a company called American Zoetrope in 1969. Coppola went on to produce another movie while Lucas formed his own company, Lucasfilm Ltd. in 1971.
In 1973 Lucas won a Golden Globe and received five Academy Award nominations for the film American Graffiti. It was also in 1973 that Lucas began writing the screenplay for Star Wars. He credits his inspiration for Star Wars from films Flash Gordon and the Planet of the Apes. Because of Lucas' success, he was able to form ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) in order to produce the visual effects he needed for the Star Wars movie. Sprocket Systems was created to edit and mix Star Wars, which was later named Skywalker Sound. After many turn-downs from other studios, Twentieth Century Fox finally gave Lucas a chance to produce Star Wars, in exchange for 40% of the box office income, and all merchandising rights. The movie went on to break all box office records and earned seven Academy Awards. Lucas has gone on to make other Star Wars films, in addition to creating the Indiana Jones series with Steven Spielberg. The Indian Jones series made box office records, too.
From 1980 to 1985 Lucas was having the Skywalker Ranch built. This ranch was built to accommodate the creative, technical, and administrative needs of Lucasfilm.
George Lucas also revolutionized movie theaters with the THX System, created to maintain the highest quality standards in motion picture viewing. THX stands for Tom Hollman Experiment.
Lucas has been credited for making major breakthroughs in filmmaking. He is the chairman of the board of the George Lucas Education Foundation, and in 1992 he was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Award by the Governors of the Academy of Motion PIcture Arts and Sciences for his lifetime achievement. He also sits on USC School of Cinema-Television's Board of Councilors. He formed Pixar Studio before selling it to Apple Computer's Steve Jobs. His name backwards is Egroeg Sacul. This name is also used in Disney World's ride "Star Tours." In 2001, Forbes' Magazine reported that Lucas' fortune is $3 billion.
Lucas has three adopted children, Amanda (born 1981), Katie (born 1988), and Jett (born 1993). He married Marcia Lucas in 1969 and they were later divorced in 1983.
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