Marcia Lucas

Marcia Lou Lucas (née Griffin; born October 4, 1945) is an American film editor. She is best known for her work editing the Star Wars trilogy (1977–1983) as well as other films by her then-husband George Lucas: THX 1138 (1971) and American Graffiti (1973). She also edited Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), and New York, New York (1977).

Lucas won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing in 1977 for Star Wars (1977). She was previously nominated for an Academy Award for her film editing on American Graffiti and for a BAFTA Award for Best Editing for her work on Taxi Driver. After a career gap while raising her family, Lucas produced two films in the 1990s.

Marcia Lou Griffin was born in Modesto, California. Her father was an Air Force officer stationed in Stockton, California, during World War II. Her parents divorced when she was two. Her mother, Mae Griffin, relocated the family to North Hollywood, California, to live with her parents. When Marcia's grandfather died, her mother moved to an apartment nearby, and she found work as a clerk at an insurance agency. When she was a teenager, her father reentered her life, but he had remarried and was stationed in Florida. Marcia lived with her stepfamily for two years and then moved back to Hollywood. She returned to North Hollywood to finish high school and enrolled in chemistry courses at Los Angeles City College while working in a mortgage-banking firm.

In 1964, Marcia's then-boyfriend worked for a Hollywood museum and wanted to hire her as a librarian to catalog all the donated movie memorabilia. They sent her to apply for the job at a California State Employment office. Since she had no experience, the Employment office sent her to Sandler Films who needed an apprentice film librarian with no experience. Marcia was eventually promoted to being an assistant editor by the time she was twenty. She was in a Motion Picture Editors Guild apprenticeship of eight years, leading to becoming a Guild film editor. She edited promotional films and trailers.

In 1967, Verna Fields, one of the few respected female film editors in the industry at that time, asked Sandler Films to send her an assistant editor to help on a United States Information Agency documentary, about Lyndon B. Johnson's 21–23 December 1967 Asia trip, later titled Journey to the Pacific (1968). Fields had also hired University of Southern California students as assistant editors, including George Lucas. The following spring, the newly engaged Marcia moved in with Lucas at his hilltop apartment on Portola Drive in Beverly Hills and returned to editing commercials as George Lucas accompanied Francis Ford Coppola to scout filming locations for The Rain People (1968) at Long Island, New York. When principal photography began on The Rain People, Lucas simultaneously begun shooting a behind-the-scenes documentary short titled Filmmaker (1968).

Back in California, Marcia had accepted an offer to work on Medium Cool (1969) when George had recommended her as an assistant editor for Barry Malkin on The Rain People. Fortunately, the shooting schedule for Medium Cool was delayed, which allowed for her to work on both films. Following this assignment, she and George returned to their Portola Drive residence to edit Filmmaker. Shortly after, Coppola had established a multi-picture deal with his production company American Zoetrope and Warner Bros. Their first project was THX 1138 (1971) for which Marcia served as an assistant editor. Reflecting on the film's commercial failure, Marcia stated: "I never cared for THX because it left me cold. When the studio didn't like the film, I wasn't surprised. But George just said to me I was stupid and knew nothing. Because I was just a Valley Girl. He was the intellectual."

When principal photography had wrapped on American Graffiti (1973), George had wanted Marcia to edit the film, but Universal Pictures executive Ned Tanen insisted on hiring Verna Fields, who had just finished editing Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express (1974). However, Fields worked on the rough cut of the film and then left to resume work on What's Up, Doc? (1972). For the next six months, Marcia edited American Graffiti alongside her husband and sound editor Walter Murch to its contractual runtime of 110 minutes. In 1974, Marcia Lucas and Fields were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for their work on American Graffiti.

After American Graffiti was released, Martin Scorsese asked Marcia to edit Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), his first studio film. Sandra Weintraub recalled: "We knew her, and we liked her, and she was in the union. It was good for her to get away from George and his house. Here she was, a wonderful editor working on her husband's films. I don't think she got taken seriously." As Marcia was editing the film in Los Angeles, George joined her and sequestered himself in a hotel room as he wrote the first draft for Star Wars (1977). In his fourth draft of Star Wars, George originally had written for Obi-Wan Kenobi to survive his lightsaber duel with Darth Vader by retreating through a blast door that would slam shut behind him. However, Marcia suggested to her husband that he should kill off Kenobi and have him act as a spiritual guide to Luke. Although, it had been an idea George was already considering.