Marcia Lucas has a total of six film credits on her IMDB page. Seven if you count a 32-minute behind-the-scenes 1968 documentary about the making of a Francis Ford Coppola movie called "The Rain People." Marcia's IMDB credits end in 1983.
You might assume someone with just six IMDB credits with a hard stop in 1983 had just a so-so, forgettable career. That assumption would be very inaccurate for Marcia Lucas.
Marcia's first credit (outside of that short documentary) was for 1973's "American Graffiti." Written and directed by her then husband, George Lucas, American Graffiti would prove to be a seminal coming-of-age comedy/drama that still stands as one of the most-profitable movies of all time after it earned $140 million at the box office on a measly budget of $777,000. Marcia's editing work earned her an Oscar nomination.
Her second credit is Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed 1973 movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore."
In 1976, Marcia's third IMDB credit was Scorsese's "Taxi Driver." Her work on Taxi Driver led to a BAFTA nomination. Her fourth credit is Scorsese's 1977 film "New York, New York."
While Marcia was working with Scorsese, George Lucas was back in Los Angeles trying to convince Fox executives to allow him to make a far-fetched space opera he had recently completed. The mind-blowing financial success of American Graffiti finally gave him the leverage to get a green light. He also would famously use that leverage to score 100% ownership rights of the film's intellectual property and merchandise… which would eventually make George Lucas billions upon billions of dollars.
When principal photography was completed, Marcia took the reigns from her husband and sprinkled her editing magic on what became….
Star Wars
Marcia's work on Star Wars won her an Oscar for Best Film Editing. George Lucas was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay but walked away empty handed. Fast forward a couple decades and George Lucas still does not have a single Academy Award win.
Marcia's final two IMDB credits are:
- Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
So ya. She had a mildly successful carer.
Unfortunately while Return of the Jedi was being filmed, Marcia and George's marriage had hit the skids. To keep up good PR, George asked Marcia to stay with him until Jedi was released. Jedi was released on May 25, 1983. The couple announced their divorce 19 days later.
Upon divorcing, George reportedly paid Marcia a $50 million divorce settlement. That's the same as around $150 million in today's money.
With her settlement in the bank, Marcia largely retired and retreated from Hollywood. She has spent much of the last few decades, at least part of the year, living on the Hawaiian island of Maui where in 2005 Marcia paid a little under $7 million for 4,300 square-foot mansion in the coastal town of Lahaina. This mansion, which has some of the most-ridiculous cliff-top ocean views you'll ever see in any house in the world, is now listed for…
$12.95 million
Take a video tour below, wait til you see the ocean views from the living room/entertainment area:
Unclear where Marcia will go next or if she already owns a new place in Maui. Maybe she's done with island life, maybe she's already locked-down an even better property (though, a better property would be hard to imagine).
Marcia does still own at least one home back in Los Angeles and another in San Francisco.
