George Walton Lucas, Jr. (photo ©nicolas genin) was born on May 14, 1944, in Modesto, California, USA.

When he was a student at Modesto Junior College, George Lucas started experimenting with an 8 mm camera and became interested in cinema. He decided to move to the University of Southern California (USC) School of Cinematic Arts, one of the first to have a school devoted to cinema. It was there that he became friends with Steven Spielberg, who in the future became his collaborator in various projects.

After earning a bachelor’s at USC, George Lucas tried to join the U.S. Air Force but without success. He was drafted by the Army to go to Vietnam, but was reformed because the medical examination showed that he had diabetes. At that point, he returned to USC, where he directed several short films, including “THX 1138”, which became the basis for his first movie. That short film won him a scholarship to study the filming of “Finian’s Rainbow”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, with whom he became friends.

In 1971, George Lucas directed “THX 1138”, set in a dystopian future in which feelings are banned because they can cause thoughts of rebellion and create a consciousness in the individual. Initially, it seemed to have little success, even if writer Ben Bova published a novelization, but in time it became a cult movie, and for Luca,s THX 1138 became a sort of good luck charm.

In 1973, George Lucas directed “American Graffiti”, and he was also among the authors of the screenplay, being inspired by his teenage years. In the cast, there was Harrison Ford, who at the time struggled to find roles and was working as a carpenter in Lucas’s house. The movie was a great success, influencing subsequent films, including the 1979 sequel “More American Graffiti” and the famous TV show “Happy Days”.

In 1977, George Lucas directed “Star Wars”, later called “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope”. Lucas founded “Industrial Light & Magic” to create the special effects for the movie, which became the first chapter in a saga that became an absolute cult that needs no introduction.

Those three movies were enough to make George Lucas rich and famous, especially as a director. In later years, he devoted himself mainly to writing screenplays and producing movies. He left to others the direction of the “Star Wars” sequels: “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) and “Return of the Jedi” (1983).

Together with his friend Steven Spielberg, George Lucas developed another saga that became famous, Indiana Jones, which began in 1981 with the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. The archaeologist played by Harrison Ford returned in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984), “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989) and after many years in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008).

In the ’80s, George Lucas also produced movies by other important directors such as “Kagemusha” by Akira Kurosawa (1980), “Labyrinth” by Jim Henson (1986), and “Tucker, the Man and His Dream” by Francis Ford Coppola (1988). He also started developing various cinema and television productions related to his most celebrated sagas.

Not all of George Lucas’s projects in the ’80s were successful, and eventually, he decided to take a step back to rethink his activity as a writer and producer. In 1997, he released a new version of the Star Wars trilogy with new special effects and new scenes. The renewed success of the trilogy led Lucas to write the prequels he had in mind from the beginning.

After many years, George Lucas returned to directing with “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” (1999), “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” (2002), and “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” (2005). This new trilogy was a great commercial success, but the criticism from the old fans has often been negative.

In 2012, George Lucas announced his intention to abandon major productions to create small independent movies. On October 30, 2012, he announced the sale of his production company to Disney for $4.05 billion.

George Lucas is very active in various philanthropic projects and has pledged to give half of his fortune to charity. He was married from 1969 to 1983 to Marcia Lou Griffin. Over the years, he adopted two daughters and a son. On June 22, 2013, he married Mellody Hobson, and together they had a daughter via gestational carrier.

In recent decades, George Lucas has influenced not only cinema because many of his movies are now part of the general culture in the world. The stories he told are often reworkings of existing elements, but Lucas was able to create great advances in technology that pushed cinema to new levels.