Post by Lord Brama on May 15, 2007 15:47:43 GMT -5
Today I feel that we should pay respect to the man that ultimately brought all of us together, George Lucas. Today is his 63rd birthday. I thought that we should pay omage to that.
Lucas was born on May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California, where his father, George Walton Lucas, Sr., ran a stationary store and owned a small walnut orchard. His mother, Dorothy Bomberger Lucas, was a member of a prominent Modesto family (one of her cousins is the mother of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman) and was in poor health, often bedridden, throughout Lucas's childhood. Lucas himself was short and scrawny as a child; his younger sister reportedly fought with other kids who picked on him.
Lucas attended Thomas Downey High School, where he was an indifferent student at best, He was interested in racecar driving; he dreamed of becoming a professional racecar driver. For better or worse, that dream was abruptly ended in his early adulthood when on June 12, 1962, he crashed his Fiat Bianchina in a car accident. The car was clipped from behind while he tried to make a left turn into his driveway. The car rolled; the racing harness that he had installed snapped, and he was thrown from the car. Had the harness not snapped—and Lucas has said it shouldn't have—he would most likely have been crushed to death by the steering column when the car smashed into a walnut tree. (The force of the impact uprooted the tree.) As it was, emergency personnel had difficulty finding a pulse and at first thought him dead.
Eventually he co-founded the studio American Zoetrope with Francis Ford Coppola, hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct outside the perceived oppressive control of the Hollywood studio system. American Zoetrope never really succeeded, but from the financial success of his films American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars (1977), Lucas was able to set up his own studio, Lucasfilm, in Marin County in his native northern California. Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light & Magic, the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucasfilm, respectively, have become among the most respected firms in their fields. Lucasfilm Games, later renamed to LucasArts, is highly regarded in the gaming industry.
Star Wars is considered by some to be the first "high concept" film, although others feel the first was Steven Spielberg's Jaws, released two years prior. In fact, Lucas and Spielberg had been acquaintances for some time and eventually worked together on several films, notably the first Indiana Jones vehicle, Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. Along with Spielberg, Lucas is credited with (and even blamed for) establishing the blockbuster approach to filmmaking.
Lucas was born on May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California, where his father, George Walton Lucas, Sr., ran a stationary store and owned a small walnut orchard. His mother, Dorothy Bomberger Lucas, was a member of a prominent Modesto family (one of her cousins is the mother of former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman) and was in poor health, often bedridden, throughout Lucas's childhood. Lucas himself was short and scrawny as a child; his younger sister reportedly fought with other kids who picked on him.
Lucas attended Thomas Downey High School, where he was an indifferent student at best, He was interested in racecar driving; he dreamed of becoming a professional racecar driver. For better or worse, that dream was abruptly ended in his early adulthood when on June 12, 1962, he crashed his Fiat Bianchina in a car accident. The car was clipped from behind while he tried to make a left turn into his driveway. The car rolled; the racing harness that he had installed snapped, and he was thrown from the car. Had the harness not snapped—and Lucas has said it shouldn't have—he would most likely have been crushed to death by the steering column when the car smashed into a walnut tree. (The force of the impact uprooted the tree.) As it was, emergency personnel had difficulty finding a pulse and at first thought him dead.
Eventually he co-founded the studio American Zoetrope with Francis Ford Coppola, hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct outside the perceived oppressive control of the Hollywood studio system. American Zoetrope never really succeeded, but from the financial success of his films American Graffiti (1973) and Star Wars (1977), Lucas was able to set up his own studio, Lucasfilm, in Marin County in his native northern California. Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light & Magic, the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucasfilm, respectively, have become among the most respected firms in their fields. Lucasfilm Games, later renamed to LucasArts, is highly regarded in the gaming industry.
Star Wars is considered by some to be the first "high concept" film, although others feel the first was Steven Spielberg's Jaws, released two years prior. In fact, Lucas and Spielberg had been acquaintances for some time and eventually worked together on several films, notably the first Indiana Jones vehicle, Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. Along with Spielberg, Lucas is credited with (and even blamed for) establishing the blockbuster approach to filmmaking.
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