Artist Ralph McQuarrie, the creator of all the key images in George Lucas’ Star Wars films, has died at the age of 82. By and large, sketches of the robots R2-D2, C-3PO, imperial stormtroopers, Darth Vader and the Death Star battle station turned out to be Lucas’s key trump cards during his negotiations with film studios.
According to early sketches, Imperial stormtroopers were also supposed to be armed with lightsabers (dayofthejedi.com).
The fact is that at the end of the 1970s, science fiction in Hollywood was considered synonymous with failure at the box office and, accordingly, Lucas needed very compelling arguments in order to “break through” his script and get the budget necessary for filming.
Empire destroyers in orbit of the planet Hoth. Sketch by Ralph McQuarrie (dayofthejedi.com)
From the very beginning, Lucas made the main bet on the visual component, and not on the plot, and, having met McQuarrie “with two handshakes,” he invited him to make the necessary sketches. With these images, Lucas came to the bosses of the 20th Century Fox film studio. Well, we all know what happened next.
McQuarrie started out as a technical illustrator for Boeing, making movie posters on the side. At one point, he was producing animation for CBS News, and more specifically for a program dedicated to the Apollo space program. That’s when Lucas noticed him.
In 1975, he approached McQuarrie, who was already 46 years old, with a proposal to do sketches for the future “Star Wars”, and this turned out to be the starting point for a new career for the former technical illustrator: it was he who produced sketches for the most sensational “space” films in Hollywood – “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T.,” and “Jurassic Park” by Steven Spielberg, the first “Indiana Jones” (directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas), and the visual component of Ron Howard’s film “Cocoon” brought McQuarrie an Oscar. .
In the late 1990s, Ralph McQuarrie decided to retire. When Lucas invited him to make sketches for a new portion of Star Wars, he refused, saying that he was “run out of steam,” so a completely different person was responsible for the visual part.
Ralph McQuarrie died on March 3, 2012 at the age of 82.
Ralph McQuarrie (www.ralphmcquarrie.com)
“His genius contributions… inspired and motivated the entire team that worked on the original Star Wars trilogy.” When I didn’t have enough words to express my ideas, I could always turn to Ralph’s wonderful illustrations and say: “Make it like this,” said George Lucas, upon learning of the death of his old companion.
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