Ralph McQuarrie, designer of Star Wars, dead at 82; RIP

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GeorgeC

Ralph McQuarrie, designer of Star Wars, dead at 82; RIP

Post by GeorgeC » March 6th, 2012, 3:56 am

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/movie ... .html?_r=2

Ralph McQuarrie, the inspirational artist and designer behind the original Star Wars Trilogy and the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, passed away from complications due to Parkinson's Disease at his home in Northern California this past Saturday. He was 82.

Amongst his greatest creations were the designs for many of Star Wars' famous vehicles -- the Imperial Tie Fighter, Star Destroyer, Millennium Falcon, X-Wing Fighter, Rebel Blockade Runner, and other vehicles he created mostly on his own or co-designed with Joe Jennings and other ILM artists -- as well as character designs for Darth Vader, C-3PO, Artoo Detoo, and Boba Fett, a co-design with Jennings again.

He will be missed...

... and I don't think there has been a well-designed science fiction movie since he retired. He was easily the best film designer of my lifetime and probably the finest film designer of the mid- to late 1970s and early 1980s...

The work he did on the original Star Wars just gets more impressive as time goes by.

Aside from composer/conductor John Williams, I can't think of an artist who has contributed more to the way I see or experience fantasy/adventure films today.

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