{"id":886,"date":"2026-05-30T05:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T05:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=886"},"modified":"2026-05-30T05:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T05:37:08","slug":"marcia-lucas-oscar-winning-editor-behind-star-wars-dies-at-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=886","title":{"rendered":"Marcia Lucas, Oscar-Winning Editor Behind \u2018Star Wars,\u2019 Dies at 80"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tMarcia Lucas, the Oscar-winning film editor behind <em>Star Wars <\/em>and the ex-wife of director George Lucas, has died. She was 80.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=884\">Craig Ferguson to Host CNN Original \u2018American on Purpose\u2019: Where to Stream New Series Online<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tLucas died Wednesday in Rancho Mirage, California, from cancer.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cMarcia 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 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,\u201d her family said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tA California native, Lucas (n\u00e9e\u00a0Griffin) got her start in editing via the Motion Picture Editors Guild apprenticeship program and eventually became the assistant to lauded female film editor Verna Fields (<em>Jaws<\/em>, <em>Paper Moon<\/em>). It was while working with Fields that she met her future husband, then a student in the film school at the University of Southern California, who had also been hired to assist Fields.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tLucas, who married George in 1969, was an assistant editor on his feature directorial debut, <em>THX 1138<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWith Fields, she edited his next film, <em>American Graffiti<\/em>, earning her first Oscar nomination for best film editing in 1974. William Reynolds took home the trophy that year for his work on <em>The Sting<\/em>, but Lucas would go on to earn the Oscar for one of Hollywood\u2019s most beloved films and her husband\u2019s biggest hit: <em>Star Wars<\/em>. Alongside editors Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew, she accepted the Academy Award for best editing from actors Farrah Fawcett and Marcello Mastroianni. The award was one of six Oscars that <em>Star Wars<\/em> won, including best art direction, sound, score, costume design and visual effects.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe 1977<em> Hollywood Reporter<\/em> review of <em>Star Wars<\/em> made a special mention of the film\u2019s editing, calling it \u201cperfectly paced.\u201d In his biography of the director, <em>Skywalking: The Life And Films Of George Lucas<\/em>, writer\u00a0Dale Pollock called the editor her husband\u2019s \u201csecret weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tGeorge credited the editor for the film\u2019s final battle sequence, telling <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> in 1977, \u201cMy wife, Marcia, can normally cut a whole reel \u2014 all ten minutes of the film \u2014 in one week. I think it took her eight weeks to cut that battle. It was extremely complex and we had 40,000 feet of dialogue footage of pilots saying this and that. And she had to cull through all that, and put in all the fighting as well. Nobody really has ever tried to interweave an actual plot story into a dogfight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=882\">Dan Levy Compares \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Success to That of \u2018Schitt\u2019s Creek\u2019: Both \u201cOnly Exist Because Canada Saw Value in Them First\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tIt was also Lucas who suggested to the director that Darth Vader kill Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Alec Guinness. \u201cThe more I thought about Ben getting killed the more I liked the idea,\u201d the filmmaker told <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cIt made the threat of Vader greater and that tied in with The Force and the fact that he could use the dark side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOutside of her then-husband, Lucas worked with lauded filmmaker Martin Scorsese in the mid-70s. She edited Scorsese\u2019s <em>Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore<\/em>, and supervised the edit on both <em>Taxi Driver <\/em>and <em>New York, New York<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tLucas went on to edit another <em>Star Wars<\/em> movie, <em>Return of the Jedi<\/em>, which was released in 1983, the year she and George divorced. On <em>Return of the Jedi<\/em>, George said that his wife was for the \u201cdying and crying,\u201d or the emotional scenes. <em>Return of the Jedi<\/em> is the final film where Lucas, who later married and divorced artist Tom Rodrigues, is credited as an editor.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI love film editing,\u201d she said in 1983 to <em>Time Magazine<\/em>. \u201cI have an innate ability to take good material and make it better, and to take bad material and make it fair.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tShe is survived by daughters Amanda Lucas and Amy Soper, as well as her grandchildren.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=880\">Bill Maher Blasts Trump\u2019s Freedom 250 Concert Series Lineup: \u201cIt Shows He\u2019s Concerned for the Unemployed\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marcia Lucas, the Oscar-winning film editor behind Star Wars and the ex-wife of director George Lucas, has died. She was 80.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[861,39,534],"class_list":["post-886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-george-lucas","tag-obituaries","tag-star-wars"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marcia Lucas, Oscar-Winning Editor Behind \u2018Star Wars,\u2019 Dies at 80 - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=886\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marcia Lucas, Oscar-Winning Editor Behind \u2018Star Wars,\u2019 Dies at 80 - US Property Moves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Marcia Lucas, the Oscar-winning film editor behind Star Wars and the ex-wife of director George Lucas, has died. 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