Also Credited As: George Walton Lucas Jr
Born: on 05/14/1944 in Modesto, California
Job Titles: Director, Producer, Editor

Significant Others
Companion: Linda Ronstadt. no longer together

Education
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, film, BFA, 1967

George Lucas Biography
Arguably the most important film innovator working today, George Lucas has continually "pushed the envelope" of filmmaking technology since his early days as a student at USC. Considered a wunderkind by his contemporaries, he had a much harder time communicating his vision to studio executives, whose meddling managed to compromise each of his first three feature directing efforts in some way. The monumental success of "Star Wars" (1977) ushered in the era of the 'blockbuster', which, despite the recent popularity of low-budget, independent films, is still the prevailing mentality powering the Hollywood engine. Though he set the tone and established the expectations influencing studios to devote the bulk of their energy and resources to films designed to blast off into hyperspace and earn spectacular profits, it is doubtful that a film as revolutionary as "Star Wars" was in its day could get made in the current climate.
The son of a Modesto, California retail businessman, Lucas grew up tinkering with cars and dreaming of glory at the race track until a near-fatal auto crash derailed his driving ambitions, forcing him behind the scenes as a mechanic. He had already begun experimenting with both still photography and 8-mm movies when an assignment to help build a racing car introduced him to its owner, distinguished cinematographer Haskell Wexler, with whose encouragement he began to pursue filmmaking seriously. At USC he studied animation, moved to cinematography and excelled at editing, making eight student films ranging from one minute to 25 minutes. As the winner of a Warner Bros. scholarship, he came in contact with Francis Ford Coppola, and the two quickly became allies and close friends, Lucas serving as "general assistant, assistant art director, production aide, general do everything" for Coppola's "The Rain People" (1969). When Coppola opened his American Zoetrope production company (with its ultra modern editing equipment) in a San Francisco warehouse, Lucas was its vice-president.