Marcia Lucas, Oscar-Winning Editor Behind ‘Star Wars,’ Dies at 80

Marcia Lucas, the film editor who won an Oscar for her work on *Star Wars* and was married to director George Lucas, has passed away. She was 80 years old.

She died on Wednesday in Rancho Mirage, California, from cancer.

Her family released a statement saying, "Marcia 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.

 Her 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."

Marcia was born in California.

 She began her editing career through the Motion Picture Editors Guild apprenticeship program and later became an assistant to the famous editor Verna Fields, who worked on films like *Jaws* and *Paper Moon*. It was while working with Fields that she met her future husband, George Lucas, who was a film student at the University of Southern California.

Marcia married George in 1969.

 She worked as an assistant editor on his first film as a director, *THX 1138*. With Fields, she helped edit his next film, *American Graffiti*, which earned her her first Oscar nomination for best film editing in 1974. Although William Reynolds won that year for *The Sting*, Marcia later won an Oscar for her work on *Star Wars*. She shared the award with editors Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew, and it was one of six Oscars that *Star Wars* won, including best art direction, sound, score, costume design, and visual effects.

A 1977 review in the *Hollywood Reporter* praised *Star Wars*’ editing, calling it "perfectly paced."

 In his book about George Lucas, *Skywalking: The Life And Films Of George Lucas*, writer Dale Pollock referred to Marcia as his "secret weapon."

George once told *Rolling Stone* in 1977, "My wife, Marcia, can normally cut a whole reel— all ten minutes of the film—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."

Marcia also suggested that Darth Vader kill Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Alec Guinness.

 George told *Rolling Stone*, "The more I thought about Ben getting killed the more I liked the idea. It made the threat of Vader greater and that tied in with The Force and the fact that he could use the dark side."

Outside of her marriage to George, Marcia worked with acclaimed director Martin Scorsese in the 1970s.

 She edited *Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore* and helped with the edits on *Taxi Driver* and *New York, New York*.

She later edited another *Star Wars* movie, *Return of the Jedi*, which came out in 1983, the same year she and George divorced.

 George said that Marcia handled the emotional scenes in *Return of the Jedi*, and that was the last film where she was credited as an editor. She later married and divorced artist Tom Rodrigues.

In 1983, she told *Time Magazine*, "I love film editing.

 I have an innate ability to take good material and make it better, and to take bad material and make it fair."

She is survived by her daughters, Amanda Lucas and Amy Soper, and her grandchildren.