Happy Birthday-George Lucas

Dear mouse,

George Lucas the American film director and producer of Star Wars is celebrating his birthday today, May 14. He was born in Modesto, Calif. in 1944.

Lucas's first film, THX-1138 in 1970 was not successful, but his next two; American Graffiti in 1973 and Star Wars in 1977 set the course for filmmaking in the next decade.

The first made song scores an acceptable alternative to symphonic orchestrations; the second presented a simple action scenario bolstered by amazing special effects. Both were tremendously successful, the latter becoming the first film to top \$200 million at the box office. Lucas then formed Lucasfilm (which has since become a business conglomerate) and produced two further installments of the Star Wars tale, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). In both films he promoted a special effects-driven aesthetic through the formation of Industrial Light and Magic, a company that produces state-of-the-art effects for films.

Lucas also produced the popular Indiana Jones trilogy, which mixed spectacular stunt work with a seriallike content of inescapable traps from which the stalwart hero escapes.

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