George Lucas

George Walton Lucas Jr. graduated from USC film school in 1967, moved to San Francisco, and co-founded American Zoetrope with Francis Ford Coppola. His first feature, THX 1138 (1971), flopped commercially despite critical praise. American Graffiti (1973), drawn from his Modesto youth, earned five Oscar nominations and funded what came next: Star Wars (1977), a troubled production that became the highest-grossing film of its time and won six Academy Awards. He produced its sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), then partnered with Steven Spielberg on the Indiana Jones series starting with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). After re-releasing the original trilogy with controversial alterations in 1997, 2004, and 2011, he returned to directing for the prequel trilogy - The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002), Revenge of the Sith (2005). In 2012 he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, ending his reign over the franchise but securing his place as one of history's most financially successful filmmakers, with ten films in the inflation-adjusted top 100.