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Marcia Lucas, who won an Oscar arsenic an exertion of the archetypal 1977 “Star Wars" and was portion of a radical of women whose editing was indispensable to film's New Hollywood era, has died, a lawyer for her household said Friday (May 29, 2026) astatine the property of 80.
Lucas, who was joined to “Star Wars” creator George Lucas from 1969 to 1983, died Wednesday (May 27, 2026) from metastatic cancer, lawyer Deidre Von Rock said successful an email to AP. She died successful Rancho Mirage, California, surrounded by loved ones, Von Rock said.
Marcia Lucas was the exertion connected 1983's “Return of the Jedi” and the pre-“Star Wars” George Lucas-directed films “THX 1138” and “American Graffiti”. She was besides portion of the editing squad for manager Martin Scorsese's 1970s films “Taxi Driver,” “Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore” and “New York, New York.”
Editor was a uncommon elder originative presumption wherever a pistillate could find a foothold successful Hollywood. Marcia Lucas became 1 of respective women whose enactment successful the editing seat made consciousness of the enactment of the overwhelmingly antheral directors of the New Hollywood of the precocious 1960s done the aboriginal 1980s, including Dede Allen, exertion of “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Dog Day Afternoon”; Verna Fields, exertion of “Paper Moon” and “Jaws"; and Thelma Schoonmaker, exertion of astir of Scorsese's films starting with 1980's “Raging Bull.”
Lucas was often called the unsung leader of “Star Wars”, the archetypal movie that aft sequels, prequels and spinoffs has travel to beryllium known by its subtitle, “A New Hope”. She convinced her then-husband that helium should person Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Alec Guinness, dice successful his lightsaber conflict with Darth Vader and go a tone usher to Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker. And she had to marque consciousness of earthy footage that could person been a messiness successful the incorrect hands, including the climactic rebel onslaught connected the Death Star.
“It was highly analyzable and we had 40,000 feet of dialog footage of pilots saying this and that. And she had to cull done each that, and enactment successful each the warring arsenic well,” George Lucas told Rolling Stone successful an interrogation a fewer months aft the movie came out. “Nobody truly has ever tried to interweave an existent crippled communicative into a dogfight, and we were trying to bash that."
Lucas was calved Marcia Griffin successful Modesto, California soon aft the extremity of World War II. She moved to Los Angeles with her parent aft her parents divorced erstwhile she was a tiny child. She began moving arsenic a movie librarian and moved into moving arsenic an exertion connected commercials, trailers and promotional films. She was an adjunct exertion connected the documentary “Journey to the Pacific” for Fields, who besides hired George Lucas, past a movie pupil astatine the University of Southern California.
The mates became engaged soon after. Their matrimony would fundamentally extremity successful 1982, but they kept their divorcement nether wraps until aft the merchandise of “Return of the Jedi” successful 1983. Marcia Lucas was past joined to Tom Rodrigues, a accumulation manager astatine the Skywalker Ranch accumulation center, from 1983 to 1993.
She is survived by her daughters, Amanda Lucas and Amy Soper, and grandchildren Felix Hallikainen, Aeliana Hallikainen and Knox Soper. "Her power connected movie is indelible, but those who knew her champion volition retrieve the mode she made beingness consciousness much vivid, much beautiful, much fun, and much afloat of love,” a household connection said. “Her enactment was known for its affectional intelligence, rhythm, and humanity, a uncommon quality to find the information of a country and bring heart, momentum, and clarity to the screen.”
