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Lucas was born in Modesto, California. His father George Walton Lucas, Sr., ran a stationary store. Lucas attended Downey High School, and he was interested in racecar driving. He dreamed to become a professional racecar driver. However, a terrible automobile accident abruptly ended that dream, and therefore, changed his views on life. During the 1960s, Lucas studied cinema in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to film. There he made a number of short films, including an early version of THX1138, later to become his first full-length feature film.
After graduating, he co-founded the studio American ZoetropeAmerican Zoetrope is the name of the studios founded by Francis Ford Coppola, named after a collection of zoetropes he was given in the late 1960s by filmmaker and collector of early motion picture making equipment, Mogens Skot-Hansen. Originally housed i with Francis Ford CoppolaGeorge Lucas, Michael Jackson and Francis Ford Coppola filming Captain EO Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is an American film director. Career 1960 to 1978 Coppola studied film at UCLA and while there, he made numerous short films, including som, hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct in outside the perceived oppressive control of the Hollywood studio system . American Zoetrope never really succeeded, but from the financial success of his films American GraffitiAmerican Graffiti is a 1973 film directed by George Lucas. Written by Lucas, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, it tells the story of a group of small-town middle-class American California teenagers on the last night of summer. It starred Richard Dreyfuss (Cu and Star Wars, Lucas was able to set up his own studio, LucasfilmLucasfilm Ltd. is a film production company founded by George Lucas, based in Marin County, California. Related companies include: LucasArts video and computer games THX Ltd. theater sound system Lucas Digital Skywalker Sound postproduction sound editing, in Marin CountyMarin County is a county located in California's San Francisco Bay Area, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2000, the population was 247,289. The county seat is San Rafael. San Quentin Prison is located in the county, as is Skywalker in his native northern California. Skywalker SoundSkywalker Sound is the renowned sound effects, sound editorial, sound design and music recording division of George Lucas's Lucas Digital motion picture group. Its main facilities are located in Lucas Valley, near Nicasio, California. Its staff of Sound D and Industrial Light and Magic, respectively the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucasfilm, have became among the most respected firms in their fields. Lucasfilm Games, later renamed to LucasArts, is highly regarded in the computer games industry.
Lucas was fined by the Directors Guild of America for refusing to have a standard title sequence in his Star Wars films. After paying the fine, Lucas quit the guild.
On October 3, 1994 Lucas started to write the three Star Wars prequels and on that November 1 he left the day-to-day operations of his filmmaking business and started a sabbatical to finish the prequels.
Currently Lucas' reworkings of the originally released Star Wars films has attracted criticism from some fans, as he is refusing to re-release the originals on DVD. Others claim that Lucas's decision is based around his wish not to re-release films which to him represent unfinished efforts. The latter sometimes have accused the former of believing they know more about Star Wars than its creator. Most, however, believe that the original versions should be preserved at least for historical value, since those versions were the ones responsible for creating the fanbase and changing the entire Hollywood studio film paradigm.