George Lucas is a well know writer, producer and director of fantasy/science fiction movies such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones. He was born on May 14, 1944, in Modesto, California. As a boy he was very artistic and thought he might be a photographer when he grew up. As he got older he wanted to be a race car driver, but after he had a bad car crash in high school he changed his mind.

After high school George Lucas went to the University of Southern California (USC) Film School and graduated in 1966 with a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts). His first big film was American Graffiti in 1973; it only took $780,000 to make but it made $50 million and it won several awards.

In 1977 George Lucas made the first Star Wars movie, Star Wars IV: A New Hope which made $322 million. What’s surprising is that before the movie was released it was reviewed by the film company executives and they fell asleep. But the day the movie came out lines of people started forming at 8 a.m. People really liked the story and the special effects such as the “light sabers”. He made two more Star Wars movies, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Both of these movies also made a lot of money and Star Wars became part of American pop culture. He also produced the Indiana Jones movies which were a big hit with the movie going public.

George Lucas had a big impact on the way films were made because he was one of the first film makers to use computers for special effects in his movies. He went on to make three more Star Wars movies and a fourth animated movie called Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Because of the success of all his films George Lucas became very wealthy. He used his wealth for a number of things including donating $175 million to his college (USC), donating $1 million to help build the Martin Luther King National Memorial, and forming the George Lucas Education Foundation. The purpose of his non-profit education foundation is to educate the world about the best teaching methods in public schools through the use of a website (www.edutopia.org), films and a magazine called Edutopia.

I chose to do this biography on George Lucas because I love Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies and video games. But after doing this report I find him even more interesting because he wanted to be a race driver when he was young, he has become very wealthy from his films, and he has used his wealth to help other people. In his own way George Lucas has helped “the force” be with us all.