Ralph McQuarrie helped design many top sci-fi films of 1980s
(NEWSER) - Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who was instrumental in shaping the Star Wars universe—down to the look of characters like Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and R2-D2—has died at the age of 82, reports CBS News . In addition to working at Boeing and creating Apollo space flight animations for CBS News, McQuarrie designed the concept art that George Lucas used to sell Star Wars to 20th Century Fox. "I wanted to make these paintings as close to what would be on the screen as possible," McQuarrie once told Cinefantastique . "That was a product of, or a result of our wish to make the people at Fox feel that we had a picture that was going to have a quality image, one that wasn't going to be trashy science fiction. ... It was going to be a real polished product." More»
