What To Know
- Marcia Lucas, Oscar-winning editor of Star Wars and ex-wife of George Lucas, is dead.
- She was celebrated for her influential editing work in multiple Star Wars films and other projects.
- Lucas is survived by her two daughters, Amanda and Amy.
Marcia Lucas, an Oscar-winning editor for Star Wars and the ex-wife of George Lucas, is dead at 80.
On Wednesday, May 27, Marcia died at her vacation home in Rancho Mirage, California, following a battle with cancer. Deidre Von Rock, the family’s attorney, confirmed the news in a statement to Entertainment Weekly.
“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 family said. “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.”
In 1978, Marcia won an Oscar for Best Film Editing for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (alongside fellow editors Richard Chew and Paul Hirsch) at the 50th Academy Awards. She also worked as an editor on Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Other editing credits include Taxi Driver and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore—for which she worked with Martin Scorsese—and American Graffiti, among others.
“I love film editing,” Marcia told Time back in 1983. “I have an innate ability to take good material and make it better, and to take bad material and make it fair. I think I’m even an editor in life.”
George and Marcia were married from 1969 to 1983 and share an adopted daughter, Amanda. Additionally, she welcomed a daughter, Amy, during her second marriage to stained glass artist Tom Rodrigues; they were married from 1983 to 1993.
Marcia is survived by her two daughters, three grandchildren, and, per People, her “chosen family,” Sarah Dyer and Jon Taylor.