George Lucas : biography
Personal life
Lucas at the Time 100 2006 gala In 1969, Lucas married film editor Marcia Lou Griffin, who went on to win an Academy Award for her editing work on the original Star Wars film. George and Marcia adopted a daughter, Amanda, in 1981, and divorced in 1983. Lucas has since adopted two more children: Katie, born in 1988, and Jett, born in 1993. All three of his children have appeared in the three Star Wars prequels, as has Lucas himself. During the 1980s, Lucas was in a relationship with singer Linda Ronstadt.
Lucas began dating Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments and chair of Dreamworks Animation, in 2006. Lucas and Hobson announced their engagement in January 2013, and married on June 22, 2013 at Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California.
Lucas was born and raised in a Methodist family. The religious and mythical themes in Star Wars were inspired by Lucas’ interest in the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell, and he would eventually come to identify strongly with the Eastern religious philosophies he studied and incorporated into his films, which were a major inspiration for "the Force." Lucas eventually came to state that his religion was "Buddhist Methodist". Lucas resides in Marin County.
Lucas is a major collector of the American illustrator and painter Norman Rockwell. A collection of 57 Rockwell paintings and drawings owned by Lucas and fellow Rockwell collector and film director Steven Spielberg were displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from July 2, 2010 to January 2, 2011 in an exhibition titled Telling Stories.
Lucas has said that he is a fan of Seth MacFarlane’s hit TV show Family Guy. MacFarlane has said that Lucasfilm was extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works.
Philanthropy
In 1991, The George Lucas Educational Foundation was founded as a nonprofit operating foundation to celebrate and encourage innovation in schools. The Foundation’s content is available under the brand Edutopia, in an award-winning web site, social media and via documentary films. Lucas, through his foundation, was one of the leading proponents of the E-rate program in the universal service fund, which was enacted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. On June 24, 2008, Lucas testified before the United States House of Representatives subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet as the head of his Foundation to advocate for a free wireless broadband educational network.
In 2005, Lucas gave US$1 million to help build the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to commemorate American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, October 20, 2005. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
On September 19, 2006, USC announced that George Lucas had donated $175–180 million to his alma mater to expand the film school. It is the largest single donation to USC and the largest gift to a film school anywhere.Stuart Silverstein, , The Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2006. Previous donations led to the already existing George Lucas Instructional Building and Marcia Lucas Post-Production building., USC School of Cinematic Arts., USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Lucas has pledged to give half of his fortune to charity as part of an effort called The Giving Pledge led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to persuade America’s richest individuals to donate their financial wealth to charities.
In June 2013, it was reported Lucas will propose establishing a museum, Lucas Cultural Art Museum, to be built on Crissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. If the proposal is accepted, Lucas’ large collection of illustrations and pop art, with an estimated value of more than $1 billion, will be displayed there. According to the report, Lucas will offer to pay the estimated $300 million cost of constructing the museum, will endow it with $400 million when it opens, and eventually add an additional $400 million to its endowment.
