
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is the talented 69-year-old brains behind the phenomenon that is Star Wars. Whilst we’re celebrating May the Fourth over here at I’m With Geek, I thought I’d treat you to some facts about the great man himself. You may know them or you may not, but it seems fitting to pay homage to Lucas on this day.
Enjoy, and May the fourth be with you. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

Even though he did not actually write this Star Wars book himself (the aforementioned title was ghost written by American author of sci-fi and fantasy stories Alan Dean Foster for Lucas) Lucas is without doubt the father to the Star Wars Empire. He founded LucasFilm, an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California, in 1971. LucasFilm has recently been bought by Walt Disney Productions, but before this LucasFilm produced seven Star Wars films, and not to mention four Indiana Jones films; which is the other incredibly famous franchise that Lucas created.
In January 2012, Lucas announced his semi-retirement and step back from producing large scale blockbuster films such as the Star Wars collection and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features.
After the release of Red Tails back in 2012, Lucas’ retirement statement told of a great filmmaker who finally fulfilled all of his creative goals; ‘Red Tails is the last of all the films that he ever said [he wanted to make]. He started 23 years ago on Red Tails and now he has fulfilled everything he set out to do, which no…very few filmmakers ever get an opportunity to do.’ LINK TO FULL ARTICLE.
He is set to write and serve as Executive Producer on the Star Wars Episode VII film that is due to be released in 2015, so Lucas hasn’t completely left the industry just yet.
Aside from being a true asset to film and production, Lucas is also a known philanthropist. He gave $1 million in 2005 to assist in building the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to celebrate American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. He also donated $175–180 million to his alma mater to expand the film school at The University of Southern California. His dedication to give to the community is both refreshing and humbling, especially from someone who is so unbelievably successful in what they’ve accomplished.