George Lucas, left, and Marcia Lucas attend an event celebrating the release of “New York, New York,” beginning with a gala screening at Lincoln Center and continuing with an afterparty at Studio 54, in New York City on June 21, 1977.
Lynn Karlin/Penske Media via Getty Images
Oscar winner Marcia Lucas, the former wife of George Lucas who edited some of the seminal films of the 1970s, including the original “Star Wars,” has died.
Lucas, whose primary residence was in San Francisco, died at her vacation home in Rancho Mirage (Riverside County) on the evening of Wednesday, May 27, her family told the Chronicle through their San Francisco attorney, Deidre Von Rock. The cause was metastatic cancer.
“Marcia was a force,” her family said in a statement. “A true trailblazer for women in film and one of the most influential editors in cinematic history; she helped redefine what film editing could be and paved the way for generations of women who followed.”
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Born Marcia Lou Griffin in Modesto on Oct. 4, 1945, but raised in North Hollywood, she met her future husband when both were assistants for pioneering female film editor Verna Fields (1975’s “Jaws”). They married in 1969.
As George Lucas, also a Modesto native, began his directing career working with Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope, Marcia Lucas rose in the ranks to help shape several groundbreaking works by the young auteurs of New Hollywood.
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She co-edited George Lucas’ breakthrough film “American Graffiti” (1973) with Fields, and went on to edit “Star Wars” (1977) and “Return of the Jedi” (1983). She also edited Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1974), “Taxi Driver” (1976) and “New York, New York” (1977).
“She will be remembered as a brilliant storyteller, an incredible friend, a loving mother, a generous host, and a woman whose humor and sparkle filled every room she entered,” her family said. “Her influence on film is indelible, but those who knew her best will remember something even greater: the way she made life feel more vivid, more beautiful, more fun, and more full of love.”
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Oscar-winning film editor Marcia Lucas, the former wife of George Lucas who edited some of the seminal films of the 1970s, including the original “Star Wars,” has died at 80.
Courtesy of Marcia Lucas family
Lucas received her first Academy Award nomination for “American Graffiti” and won her only Oscar for “Star Wars,” which she co-edited with Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew.
For the latter, she shaped the classic, fast-moving final battle that resulted in the destruction of the Death Star.
“My wife, Marcia, can normally cut a whole reel — all ten minutes of the film — in one week,” George Lucas told Rolling Stone magazine in 1977. “I think it took her eight weeks to cut that battle. It was extremely complex and we had 40,000 feet of dialogue footage of pilots saying this and that. And she had to cull through all that, and put in all the fighting as well. Nobody really has ever tried to interweave an actual plot story into a dogfight, and we were trying to do that.”
George Lucas also credited Marcia with the idea of killing off Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), allowing him to appear as a spectral force through the rest of the trilogy.
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But one of Marcia Lucas’ most impactful contributions to cinema was uncredited.
After viewing a rough cut of Steven Spielberg’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which was produced by George Lucas, at a screening room at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Marcia Lucas stated there was no emotional release for the audience because Marion (Karen Allen) was not in the final scene between Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and some Washington bureaucrats who had confiscated the Lost Ark of the Covenant.
George Lucas agreed and hastily wrote an ending in which Marion is waiting for Indiana after the meeting and they walk off together. The new ending was shot at San Francisco City Hall, standing in for Washington, D.C.
Marcia Lucas and George Lucas adopted a daughter, Amanda, who was born in 1981. The couple divorced in 1983.
That same year Marcia married Tom Rodrigues, a stained glass artist. They had a daughter, Amy, in 1985 but divorced in 1993.
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Lucas is survived by her daughters Amanda Lucas and Amy Soper; her grandchildren Felix and Aeliana Hallikainen, and Knox Soper; and her chosen family Sarah Dyer and Jon Taylor.
Funeral arrangements are pending. The family has asked for privacy.