Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who is most famous for creating some of the Star Wars saga’s most striking images has died.
McQuarrie passed away on March 3rd at the age of 82, leaving behind a legacy that will continue for as long as film is a relevant art form, as many of his original concept designs were woven into George Lucas’ legendary series.
McQuarrie started off as a technical artist, working for companies like Boeing, but it was in the mid-seventies when Lucas needed help visualising his script for Star Wars when he found fame amongst cineastes. In addition to the original Star Wars trilogy, McQuarrie also worked on Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T, as well as Ron Howard’s Cocoon.
It’s quite amazing to see how many of McQuarrie’s drawings actually made it to the screen in the original Star Wars trilogy, and George Lucas’ films would have been very different, if it had not been for the artist’s touch.