George Lucas

George Walton Lucas Jr born May 14 1944 is an American filmmaker and entrepreneur Lucas is known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and founding Lucasfilm LucasArts and Industrial Light Magic He served as chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012 After graduating from the University of Southern California in 1967 Lucas cofounded American Zoetrope with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola Lucas wrote and directed THX 1138 1971 based on his earlier student short Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB which was a critical success but a financial failure His next work as a writerdirector was the film American Graffiti 1973 inspired by his youth in early 1960s Modesto California and produced through the newly founded Lucasfilm The film was critically and commercially successful and received five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture Lucass next film the epic space opera Star Wars 1977 had a troubled production but was a surprise hit becoming the highestgrossing film at the time winning six Academy Awards and sparking a cultural phenomenon Lucas produced and cowrote the sequels The Empire Strikes Back 1980 and Return of the Jedi 1983 With director Steven Spielberg he created produced and cowrote the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 Temple of Doom 1984 The Last Crusade 1989 and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008 He also produced and wrote a variety of films and television series through Lucasfilm between the 1970s and the 2010s In 1997 Lucas rereleased the Star Wars trilogy as part of a special edition featuring several alterations home media versions with further changes were released in 2004 and 2011 He returned to directing with a Star Wars prequel trilogy comprising The Phantom Menace 1999 Attack of the Clones 2002 and Revenge of the Sith 2005 He last collaborated on the CGIanimated television series Star Wars The Clone Wars 20082014 2020 the war film Red Tails 2012 and the CGI film Strange Magic 2015 Lucas is one of historys most financially successful filmmakers and has been nominated for four Academy Awards His films are among the 100 highestgrossing movies at the North American box office adjusted for ticketprice inflation Lucas is considered a significant figure of the 20thcentury New Hollywood movement Description above from the Wikipedia article George Lucas licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia