Biography

Ralph McQuarrie was born on June 13, 1929 in Gary, Indiana, USA. He is known for Cocoon (1985), Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). He was married to Joan Benjamin. He died on March 3, 2012 in Berkeley, California, USA.

For the original Star Wars, the special effects team had to come up with a believable size for the Death Star that would allow it to appear round in long shots, but still appear flat in close-ups, since these had to be created by using flat sections of model, placed on flat tables. McQuarrie ended up calculating that the Death Star was 92 miles in diameter, which makes it approximately 290 miles in circumference.

One drawing done for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)... the book illustration of the "Ark of the Covenant". In Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), he walks in front of one of his own matte paintings.

Former conceptual design artist for Boeing

He created the movie poster for cult-classic, 'The Legend of Boggy Creek', in 1972, as well as others for independent filmmaker, Charles B. Pierce.

[on the visualization of Star Wars] George had ideas about how his picture would look. in fact, I think the look of the picture was more interesting to him than the plot.

[on George Lucas and working on Star Wars] George was not able to show his vision and ideas in the script. So I created the visual image to show George' vision.