Rocket Surgeon
Guest
An Exclusive Presentation of the legendary Concept Designer Ralph McQuarrie
Shame that he's "out of steam," a friend who works at Hasbro gave me the concept figures and had a lot of face time with Ralph...said he was in poor health. Very sad.
But great that he had some impact on Raiders!
One of, if not the most influential designers responsible for the signature look and feel of the Star Wars films, Ralph McQuarrie. Born in Gary, Indiana, McQuarrie moved to California in the 1960s. Initially working as a technical illustrator for Boeing, as well designing film posters and animating CBS News’s coverage of the Apollo space program at the three-man company Reel Three, McQuarrie was asked by Hal Barwood to produce some concept illustrations for a film project he and Matthew Robbins were starting.
Impressed with his work, director George Lucas met with Ralph to discuss his plans for a space-fantasy film. Several years later, in 1975, Lucas commissioned McQuarrie to illustrate several scenes from the script of the film, Star Wars. McQuarrie designed many of the characters, including Darth Vader and Chewbacca and drew many concepts for the film’s sets. McQuarrie’s concept paintings, including such scenes as R2-D2 and C3PO arriving on Tatooine, helped convince 20th Century Fox to fund Star Wars which became a huge success upon release in 1977. Neil Kendricks of The San Diego Union-Tribune stated McQuarrie “holds a unique position when it comes to defining much of the look of the “Star Wars” universe.” McQuarrie noted “I thought I had the best job that an artist ever had on a film, and I had never worked on a feature film before. [...] I still get fan mail — people wondering if I worked on Episode I or just wanting to have my autograph.”
McQuarrie went on to work as the conceptual designer on the film’s two sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and also designed the alien ships in Steven Spielberg’s films Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), while his work as the conceptual artist on the 1985 film Cocoon earned him the Academy Award for Visual Effects.
Rick McCallum offered McQuarrie a role as designer for the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but he rejected the offer, noting he had “run out of steam” and Industrial Light & Magic animator Doug Chiang was appointed instead. He is now retired and his Star Wars concept paintings have subsequently been displayed in art exhibitions, including the 1999 Star Wars: The Magic of Myth.
“I just did my best to depict what I thought the film should look like, I really liked the idea. I didn’t think the film would ever get made. My impression was it was too expensive. There wouldn’t be enough of an audience. It’s just too complicated. But George knew a lot of things that I didn’t know.”
In a rare presentation exclusively moderated by John Scoleri, owner of Dreams and Vision Press and friend to Ralph, experience that magical time and get inspired all over again through the presentation and conversations of those artists that not only were inspired by but who also worked side by side with the amazing designer Ralph McQuarrie. (Guests TBA)
Filmography:
Star Wars (1977) (Production Illustrator)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) (Mother Ship designer)
The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) (Illustrator)
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (Design Consultant and Conceptual Artist)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) (ILM Illustrator)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (Scenic Artist/spaceship design)
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) (Conceptual Artist)
Cocoon (1985) (Conceptual Artist)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) (Visual Consultant)
Batteries Not Included (1987) (Conceptual Artist)
Back to the Future: The Ride (1991) (Conceptual Artist) (uncredited)
Jurassic Park (1993) (Conceptual Artist)
Shame that he's "out of steam," a friend who works at Hasbro gave me the concept figures and had a lot of face time with Ralph...said he was in poor health. Very sad.
But great that he had some impact on Raiders!
