George Lucas's Biography

George Lucas was born on 14 May 1944 in Modesto, California.

Lucas studied film at the University of Southern California. He was assistant to Francis Ford Coppola on The Rain People (1967), and in the same year won the Grand Prize in the National Student Film Festival for his short film, THX-1138.

George Lucas directed and co-authored the screenplay of American Graffiti, for which he was nominated for the best director Oscar. Famously George Lucas has had a variety of roles on the highly successful Star Wars series of films.

Lucas directed and authored Star Wars in 1977 (again Lucas was nominated for the best director Oscar), he directed, authored and executive produced Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), he also executive produced and authored The Empire Strikes Back and the Return of the Jedi.

George Lucas also had author and executive producer roles on the Indiana Jones series of films.

In a BBC interview with George Lucas around the release of Attack of the Clones they asked him, "You're director, producer, and writer here. What's the most rewarding thing, and the most frustrating?"

To which, George Lucas, responded:

"Being the director is the most rewarding part of the process. I'm just the executive producer here, the real hard part is what Rick [McCallum] does. That's the frustrating part, but I avoid that as much as I can. The writing is difficult, but it's just difficult because you have ideas, and you don't have anybody to blame but yourself if getting them onto the page is a struggle."

A measure of the popularity of the Star Wars series is that in May 2005 about 5,000 people turned out for the UK premiere of the final Star Wars film, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Some of the fans had waited for over 24 hours.

George Lucas worked with Steven Spielberg several times including on the Indiana Jones movies, but Spielberg revealed that Lucas didn't want him involved in Star Wars, saying:

"I've asked him. He won't let me do one ... I wanted to do one 15 years ago and he didn't want me to do it. I understand why - Star Wars is George's baby."

Forbes judged George Lucas to be the fourth most powerful celebrity in 2005.

George Lucas has not won an Oscar, although his films have won several, and, in 1992, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2007, it was revealed that George Lucas was working on a live action TV spin-off from the Star Wars films, involving the minor characters.

Lucas also had another TV project, a computer-animated series called Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

In August 2008, George Lucas attended the US premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the first animated Star Wars film. It will be followed by a TV series to be screened in the autumn.

In July 2009, Forbes named George Lucas as Hollywood's highest-paid man with an estimated $170m earnings in a year.

In 2012, George Lucas told The Daily Show that it took 20 years to get his film Red Tails, which he had to self-fund, to be made, "because it's an all-black movie".

In October 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm, which was wholly owned by George Lucas, for $4.05bn.

In June 2013, George Lucas married for the second time. This time to his long-term partner Mellody Hobson.