Everyone has heard about George Lucas. Although you may not know it, you have definitely watched at least one of his works. George Lucas has released numerous films and some of them turned out to be huge successes. George Lucas is a film producer, movie director and screen writer. Well, probably the best known movie ever produced by George Lucas is Star Wars. Indiana Jones is another famous movie, which you have most likely watched, produced by George Lucas.

George Lucas was born in California, in 1944. He started his successful career in the movie industry in the 1960s. George Lucas has always been writing and producing movies and he surely does it best. Well, in the 1960s, George Lucas has directed six short movies and starting with 1971 he began to be known as a Hollywood director, popular and appreciated all over the world. His most famous work, Star Wars, was first launched in 1977 and, as you already know, its success was incredible. And George Lucas was both the writer and the director of Star Wars. Anyway, during those years, George Lucas did not focus his attention only on Star Wars, as he also produced THX 1138 and American Graffiti. The three movies helped George Lucas become a major figure in Hollywood, but his success is mostly linked to Star Wars, movie which quickly became the highest grossing all time film.

Still, the list of George Lucas films that made history continues with numerous other productions. Of course, in this context Indiana Jones needs to be mentioned. The movie is extremely popular, still, and there is no wonder in the fact that Indiana Jones has so many fans all over the world, as the movie is filled with adventure, intrigues, mystery and action. Casting Harrison Ford on Indiana Jones was actually the best choice that George Lucas and his team could have made, as the actor did an incredible job with his performance. Other George Lucas films include The Empire Strikes Back, Body Heat, Twice Upon Of Time, Willow, Latino, Herbie and The Emperor. George Lucas has served as producer for all of them, in some also being the writer of the screen. The most recent George Lucas film is set to be released in 2012, Red Tails, Lucas being the film writer and producer.

George Lucas has a long list of accomplishments and achievements since he started doing work in the film industry. One of the very first things he produced was a short Sci-Fi film titled “THX-1138l4EB” which earned him the help of Francis Ford Coppola who took the young filmmaker under his wing to nurture his talent and help him climb to even greater heights. Even though some of the critics which reviewed his first short film talked positively of it, the project was ultimately a flop but still a very important stepping stone in Lucas’ career. Despite the crushing defeat of his first real independent project, Lucas forged on to work on other things which earned him a place in the Hollywood spotlight.

The next project he worked on was a film by the name of “American Graffiti” which starred Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford. It was and still is considered to be a rather accurate portrayal of American youth around the time of 1962. Although the film itself only took $780,000 to make it grossed a total of $50 million in the box office alone. As a result of this film it received five Academy Awards. Of course most people know about George Lucas from his biggest achievement yet—Star Wars. As a longtime Sci-Fi fan, Lucas was well-suited to develop the storyline behind this classic film series to really bring it to life and that is precisely what he has done.

George Lucas was born in Modesto, California in May 14, 1944. His experiences there were that of a small community, with his dad working in retail and owning a walnut ranch. But, Lucas would take those experiences with him throughout his entire life and career. It was during his time in Modesto that George Lucas decided he wanted to be a race car driver, until a car accident just before high school graduation changed those plans. Instead, George Lucas went to the University of Southern California filmmaking school.

Filmmaking School

It was during his school days that Lucas met Francis Ford Coppola, who was passionate about finding new talent. He saw that in George and persuaded him to show his new film, THX-1138:4EB to Warner Brothers, who made a feature length film from it. The movie was an abysmal failure at the box office.

American Graffiti

American Graffiti was George’s next attempt at movie making and it had drastically different results than his first attempt. Released in 1973, the movie had huge names like Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, and Harrison Ford. The movie was made for $780,000 and raked in $50 million at the box office. After that, the film was nominated for several Academy Awards.

The Star Wars Empire

The first Star Wars movie was released in 1977, and it was an extension from another one of George Lucas’ projects, Flash Gordon, which was made for $11 million and took in $513 million at the box office. Of course, the film spun two other sequels: The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jeidi. And from those spun three more prequels, with the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace starting it off in 1999.

Aside from his success in films, George Lucas has also created his own studio in Marin Country, California. There’s no doubt that today he is one of the most influential people in the movie-making industry.