50 Fun Facts About George Lucas

George Lucas was born in 1944 in which California city, later the setting of American Graffiti?

It is a small agricultural city in the Central Valley, and his father ran a stationery store there.

What career did the teenage Lucas dream of before a near-fatal crash in June 1962 changed his mind?

His seatbelt snapped and threw him clear as his Autobianchi flipped into a tree; he had bruised lungs but survived.

Lucas transferred to the film school of which institution, where his classmates were known as "The Dirty Dozen"?

He shared a dorm room with Randal Kleiser and befriended fellow student filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.

Why was Lucas turned down when he tried to join the US Air Force as an officer after graduating in 1967?

He was then drafted for Vietnam but exempted when medical tests found he had diabetes.

On which 1969 concert film did George Lucas work as a camera operator?

The Rolling Stones documentary was one of his early jobs before he moved back to the Bay Area.

With which filmmaker did Lucas co-found the studio American Zoetrope in San Francisco in 1969?

He had first met the older director on a Warner Bros. scholarship, observing the making of Finian's Rainbow.

Which actor starred in Lucas's 1971 debut THX 1138, a dystopia of mandatory drugs and banned reproduction?

Donald Pleasence co-starred, and Walter Murch co-wrote the script; a director's cut with CGI additions followed in 2004.

American Graffiti is set during one night in which year?

It studies the cruising and early rock and roll culture of Lucas's own teenage years.

American Graffiti was made for a budget of roughly how much?

It earned over $200 million in box office and home video, making it one of the most profitable films ever made.

American Graffiti overtook which 1970 disaster film as Universal's highest-grossing film ever?

Universal had planned to release it as a TV movie until a producer fresh from The Godfather attached his name to it.

Which real disc jockey appears as himself in American Graffiti?

The cast also included Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams and a young Harrison Ford.

Lucas wrote Star Wars only after failing to obtain the rights to which serial from his childhood?

The film also borrowed narrative beats from Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress and the look of spaghetti westerns.

Which studio executive forced through the Star Wars deal at Fox because he liked American Graffiti?

Lucas later said the executive "invested in him rather than in the film", and the hit restored Fox's finances.

Instead of a higher fee than his agreed $150,000, what did Lucas negotiate for on Star Wars?

Lucasfilm went on to earn hundreds of millions from toys, games and collectibles.

Which film displaced Star Wars as the highest-grossing film of all time five years later?

Both were made by the same friend of Lucas, who later lost the crown to Jurassic Park and Titanic.

Lucas's chest pains during the editing of Star Wars turned out to be what?

The strain of post-production on the trilogy contributed to his divorce from Marcia Lucas at its end.

Lucas's first wife Marcia won an Academy Award for which craft on Star Wars?

She had also been nominated for cutting American Graffiti and for a BAFTA for Taxi Driver.

Lucas gave up his Empire Strikes Back screenwriting credit out of respect for which late writer?

He kept a story credit on Empire and shared the screenplay credit with Lawrence Kasdan on Return of the Jedi.

Who directed The Empire Strikes Back at Lucas's commission?

Richard Marquand was hired for Return of the Jedi, and Lucas served as executive producer on both.

Where did the name of Lucas's effects house ILM come from?

Founded in 1975 after Douglas Trumbull turned Lucas down and suggested his assistant John Dykstra instead.

Indiana Jones was originally named Indiana Smith, after what?

Philip Kaufman cut the character's nightclub-womaniser side and suggested the Ark of the Covenant as the goal.

Where was George Lucas hiding from the Star Wars opening in May 1977 when the Indiana Jones idea was revived?

The two friends discussed the shelved archaeologist project on the beach as the surprise blockbuster took off.

Who recommended composer John Williams to Lucas for Star Wars?

Lucas has called Williams the "secret sauce" of his movies, and the AFI ranked the score the greatest of all time in 2005.

Lucas originally wanted Star Wars scored with existing classical recordings, in the manner of which film?

Williams instead proposed recurring leitmotifs in the style of Holst, Walton and Stravinsky, whose works Lucas had used as temp tracks.

Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of which company's computer division?

The Apple co-founder bought it in 1986 and became its majority shareholder.

How much did the buyer pay Lucas for the Pixar graphics group in 1986, matching it with the same sum in capital?

Lucas wanted to stop the cash drain of seven years of research and refocus on making entertainment rather than tools.

The THX sound system was developed in 1983 to ensure which film's soundtrack was reproduced accurately?

Tomlinson Holman built it at Lucas's company; the famous "Deep Note" glissando trailer came from a colleague.

Which 1986 film, based on a Marvel comic, is described as the biggest flop of Lucas's career?

It won four Golden Raspberry Awards and made about $16 million against a budget of over $30 million.

Which fantasy film directed by Ron Howard did Lucas executive-produce in 1988?

The same decade he backed Jim Henson's Labyrinth, Kurosawa's Kagemusha and Don Bluth's The Land Before Time.

Lucas's secluded ranch workplace near Nicasio is in which California county?

The property covers over 4,700 acres, of which only 15 are developed.

In 1980 Lucas fired manager Charles Weber after Weber suggested selling what?

Half the Los Angeles staff were let go, and the Star Wars Corporation subsidiary was folded back into Lucasfilm.

In 1997 Lucas re-released the original trilogy with digital modifications under what name?

Further changes followed for DVD in 2004, Blu-ray in 2011 and 4K in 2019.

The Phantom Menace (1999) was the first film Lucas had directed in over how long?

His previous directing credit was the original Star Wars in 1977.

Which Young Indiana Jones Chronicles writer did Lucas hire to polish Attack of the Clones weeks before filming?

The first draft of Episode II was completed only weeks before principal photography.

Whom did Lucas pick as supervising director of the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2014)?

The series bridged Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and was the last Star Wars story in which Lucas was deeply involved.

Red Tails (2012), which Lucas self-funded, tells the story of which group?

He also took over directing the reshoots while Anthony Hemingway was busy elsewhere.

Lucas sold his company to Disney in 2012 for a reported sum of how much?

He said he intended to give the majority of the proceeds to his philanthropic work.

Who was appointed co-chair of Lucas's company in June 2012 and later succeeded him as its sole leader?

She was a long-time Spielberg collaborator and producer of the Indiana Jones films.

After the 2012 sale, Lucas became Disney's second-largest individual shareholder, behind whose estate?

Jobs's stake came from Disney's purchase of Pixar, the company he had bought from Lucas decades earlier.

Which Star Wars film did Lucas criticise for having a 'retro feel'?

He reportedly liked Rogue One better and called The Last Jedi "beautifully made".

Strange Magic (2015), which Lucas wrote, was his first attempt at what kind of film?

The CGI fantasy was produced at Lucas's ranch and directed by Gary Rydstrom.

After leaving Chicago in 2016, where was the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art built?

Lucas first tried San Francisco, then Chicago, before settling on an eleven-acre former parking lot; construction began in 2018.

Lucas's wife Mellody Hobson became president of which investment firm in 2000?

She later became co-CEO of the firm and has also chaired Starbucks and DreamWorks Animation.

Lucas describes his religion as what?

The Force drew on Joseph Campbell's writings on myth and the Eastern philosophies he studied.

Which American painter does George Lucas collect, sharing a 2010 Smithsonian show of 57 works with a fellow director?

The exhibition was titled Telling Stories.

Which award did Lucas receive at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024?

He has been nominated for four Oscars but has never won a competitive one, a fact two old friends teased him about on stage in 2007.

Lucas's 1971 feature debut grew from a student short whose title began with which two words?

The feature, made at American Zoetrope, was a critical success but a financial failure.

Which cinematographer, a fellow autocross racing enthusiast, spotted the young Lucas's talent?

Wexler said 'George had a very good eye' and later worked with him more than once.

Leaving home, Lucas declared he would be what by the age of 30?

His father had refused to pay for art school, so he studied anthropology and literature at Modesto Junior College instead.

Which president awarded Lucas the National Medal of Arts in July 2013?

He had already served as Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day 2007.