George Lucas

Portrait of George Lucas (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/photocredit/achievers/luc0-003 (Academy of Achievement))

We've all heard of George Lucas, the creative genius behind the Star Wars saga, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, and American Graffiti; The man who created the multi-million dollar franchise entitled, "Lucasfilm Ltd", just two years before his first successful movie. However, Lucas did not always have his sights set on cinematography.

Lucas was born and raised in the suburbs of the small town of Modesto, California in 1944. Early on in his life, Lucas developed a strong passion for cars, and decided he wanted to become a race car driver; however, just days before his graduation, Lucas was involved in a near fatal crash that radically changed his career path. He soon became a student at the local college, where he developed a great interest in camera tricks, and techniques in filming. Later, he transferred to the University of Southern California filmmaking school, where he produced his first science fiction film titled, "THX-1138". The film was not received well by critics, and was a box office failure in it's 1971 release.

Although quite disappointed over the failure of his first film, Lucas started work on his next motion picture, American Graffiti. His hometown of Modesto contributed to some of his early inspiration for the film, based largely on his life as a teenager in the early 1960s. The film was nominated in five categories of that year's Academy Awards, grossed $50 million at the box office, and is considered one of the most successful low-budget films ever made.

After the success of American Graffiti, Lucas moved on to the Award Winning series, Star Wars. Critics raved about its realistic, awe-inspiring special effects, alien planets and sci-fi characters. In 1977, Star Wars (Later renamed Star Wars: A New Hope), was released. The film had a budget of $11 million, and grossed over $513 million at the box office. The saga continued with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, and then in 1999, the first movie of the prequel trilogy was released titled, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. This was followed by Episodes II and III of the trilogy. In October 2012, it was announced that Walt Disney Films had purchased Lucasfilm Ltd for $4.05 billion, and that a sequel trilogy is in the works.

Personally, George Lucas has been a lifelong hero to me, because his never ending creativity has inspired my imagination ever since the time I first watched Star Wars. The brilliance behind the plots and characters has never ceased to fuel my ideas and fantasies. He has inspired so many different inventors with his science fiction gadgets, and he has given a glimpse to the world about the possible existence of extraterrestrial life, far more technologically advanced than we could ever know.