Oscar-winning film editor Marcia Lucas, ex-wife of filmmaker George Lucas and the editor of the original “Star Wars,” has died. She was 80.
Lucas reportedly passed away on Wednesday in Rancho Mirage, California, from cancer.
Following an apprenticeship program, she became the assistant to lauded “Jaws” editor Verna Fields and assisted on editing films like “Medium Cool” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Rain People”.
She met a USC film student hired to assist Fields – George Lucas – and the pair married in 1969. She assisted on Lucas’ “THX 1138” and both Fields and Marcia Lucas edited George’s “American Graffiti”.
Her first solo editing gig was Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” before she went on to supervise editing on his “Taxi Driver” and “New York, New York” films.
Then came “Star Wars” with Lucas as one of three editors on both the original 1977 film and 1983’s “Return of the Jedi”. She also made some contributions to Steven Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. She and Lucas divorced in 1983.
Her family said in a statement: “Marcia will be remembered as a brilliant storyteller, a trailblazer for women in film, a loving mother and grandmother, a generous host, and a loyal friend whose humor and sparkle filled every room she entered. Her influence on film is indelible, but those who knew her best will remember the way she made life feel more vivid, more beautiful, more fun, and more full of love.”
Source: THR
