{"id":702727,"date":"2026-05-30T01:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/702727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T01:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:06:10","slug":"george-lucas-ex-wife-and-star-wars-unsung-hero-marcia-lucas-dead-at-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/702727\/","title":{"rendered":"George Lucas&#8217; Ex-Wife and &#8216;Star Wars&#8217; Unsung Hero Marcia Lucas Dead at 80"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260529_f3d1ad7a8e454c0b81d799f48484865b\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:c4dcb812-7c68-4027-8521-7fd893b7250b\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/f3d1ad7a8e454c0b81d799f48484865b_md.jpg\" alt=\"MARCIA LUCAS GETTY\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/people\/george-lucas\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">George Lucas<\/a>&#8216;s ex-wife Marcia Lucas, an unsung hero of &#8216;Star Wars&#8217; who has been called the original film&#8217;s &#8220;secret weapon,&#8221; is dead &#8230; TMZ has learned.<\/p>\n<p>A rep for the family tells TMZ &#8230; Marcia died on Wednesday from metastatic cancer. We&#8217;re told she passed peacefully at her home in Rancho Mirage, CA surrounded by loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_jpg_20260529_d618dd274d644f5a8d0cac66538443b2\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:c4dcb812-7c68-4027-8521-7fd893b7250b\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d618dd274d644f5a8d0cac66538443b2_md.jpg\" alt=\"SUB George Lucas and Marcia Lucas getty\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Marcia is best known for editing &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; and &#8220;Return of the Jedi&#8221; &#8230; earning an Academy Award in 1977 for Best Film Editing for the OG film.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>She got her start in editing in the mid-1960s &#8230; securing an apprenticeship during which she edited multiple promotional trailers and commercials.<\/p>\n<p>While working on the documentary &#8220;Journey to the Pacific&#8221; under Verna Fields &#8212; who would go on to edit &#8220;Jaws&#8221; &#8212; Marcia met George &#8230; and the two got engaged shortly after.<\/p>\n<p>In 1969, Marcia and George tied the knot.<\/p>\n<p>      <a id=\"gallery-link-7cb211c8-db95-468a-8630-d9ff8443ae53\" class=\"media-link gallery-block__link js-track-link js-click-gallery\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/photos\/2025\/03\/27\/star-wars-original-trilogy\/\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:gallery:7cb211c8-db95-468a-8630-d9ff8443ae53\" data-context=\"{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;gallery-block&quot;,&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;}\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:c4dcb812-7c68-4027-8521-7fd893b7250b\" data-gallery-layout=\"carousel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/777edc6b6c7645a1816c038315f0af24_md.jpg\" alt=\"Star Wars Original Trilogy\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid gallery-block__img-fluid img-aspect-4by3\"\/><\/p>\n<p>              <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Their collaborations began in the late 1960s &#8230; Marcia edited George&#8217;s short film &#8220;Filmmaker&#8221; and his feature-length directorial debut &#8220;THX 1138&#8221; before co-editing &#8220;American Graffiti&#8221; with Fields.<\/p>\n<p>Marcia worked with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/people\/martin-scorsese\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Martin Scorsese<\/a> on &#8220;Alice Doesn&#8217;t Live Here Anymore&#8221; and &#8220;Taxi Driver&#8221; &#8230; before jumping into the &#8220;Star Wars&#8221; editing process after George was horrified by the first rough cut of the movie.<\/p>\n<p>Marcia, Richard Chew, and Paul Hirsch won the Oscar for Best Film Editing at the 50th annual Academy Awards in 1977. Marica later served as an editor of &#8216;Return of the Jedi&#8217; &#8230; and she also gave George notes on other projects during their marriage in an unofficial capacity.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, in 1983 Marcia and George&#8217;s marriage came to an end. She married Tom Rodrigues &#8212; a stained glass artist &#8212; later that year, but in 1993 they divorced.<\/p>\n<p>Marcia once expressed regret about the end of her 20 &#8220;wonderful years&#8221; with George &#8230; telling &#8220;Return of the Jedi&#8221; actor Michael Pennington she didn&#8217;t think George had forgiven her for the split.<\/p>\n<p>She was also vocal about the &#8216;Star Wars&#8217; universe in recent years &#8230; bashing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/people\/kathleen-kennedy\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kathleen Kennedy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/people\/j-j-abrams\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">J.J. Abrams<\/a> for the direction of the sequel series &#8230; saying they just &#8220;don&#8217;t get&#8221; the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>Marcia had two daughters &#8212; Amanda Lucas with George and Amy Soper with Tom.<\/p>\n<p>She was 80.<\/p>\n<p>RIP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Lucas&#8216;s ex-wife Marcia Lucas, an unsung hero of &#8216;Star Wars&#8217; who has been called the original film&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-702727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}