Lucas, George
The famed director, writer and producer was born George Walton Lucas Jr. on May 14, 1944 in Modesto, California. His parents sold retail office supplies and owned a walnut ranch. He grew up in the sleepy suburb of Modesto and discovered an early passion for cars and motor racing (which would eventually serve as inspirations for his 1973 Oscar-nominated low-budget phenomenon American Graffiti). While attending community college, Lucas developed a passion for cinematography and camera tricks. Following the advice of a friend, he transferred to the University of Southern California filmmaking school. There, he produced a short futuristic science fiction film called THX-1138:4EB, which earned the attention of Francis Ford Coppola, who convinced Warner Brothers to make a feature length version of the film. Although a few critics recognized some philosophical depth behind all the technical wizardry, the film (re-titled THX-1138) flopped terribly in its 1971 release.
Intimidated by the failure of his first film, Lucas went back to work on his next project, American Graffiti. Released in 1973, the film featured such burgeoning young talents as Ron Howard (who had played Opie on TV’s The Andy Griffith Show), Richard Dreyfuss and Harrison Ford, and was recognized as a stunning portrait of listless American youth in 1962. The film, which was made for only $780,000, grossed $50 million in the box office. It was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director, and despite not winning any of the categories, it is still considered one of the most successful low-budget features ever made. Having won the confidence of his supporters, Lucas next set out to make a children’s Saturday morning serial that would be part fairy tale and part Flash Gordon. The project eventually evolved into a full-length feature entitled Star Wars (later known as Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope), starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford. In its 1977 release, Star Wars blew audiences away with its awe-inspiring special effects, fantastical landscapes and captivating characters. Made for $11 million, the film grossed over $513 million worldwide during its original release. Lucas continued the story of the Jedi and the Dark Side in The Empire Strike Back (1980) and The Return of the Jedi (1983). In the meantime, he set up a state-of-the-art special effects company called Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and a sound studio, Skywalker Sound, which he named for Luke Skywalker, the protagonist of Star Wars. Executing more and more control over the finished product of his films, Lucas eventually built his own moviemaking operation outside of the controlling influence of Hollywood in the hills of Marin Country, California.
Overlapping with his work on Star Wars, Lucas was developing a new adventure series featuring an adventurous archaeologist named Dr. Henry (“Indiana”) Jones Jr. After considering Tom Selleck and other actors, he cast Star Wars alum Harrison Ford in the title role, and Steven Spielberg signed on direct Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Instead of deep space, Lucas mined the past for this action-packed tale. Indiana Jones battled Nazis over the Ark of the Covenant in what was to be a major blockbuster film. Lucas helped create the stories and worked as a producer on the two sequels that soon followed. Ford starred with Spielberg’s future (now ex-)wife Kate Capshaw in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
Finally technology was catching up with Lucas’ creative vision for his famous science fiction saga. He had seen ILM’s capabilities when it was commissioned to bring the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park (1993) to horrifying life. The progressions in technology also convinced Lucas that it was time to go back to Star Wars, so Lucas embarked on the development of three new prequels. The first in the series, Star Wars — Episode I: The Phantom Menace, was released in spring of 1999. Star Wars – Episode II : Attack of the Clones followed in 2002, and the final installment, Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, debuted in May 2005.
In 2008, Lucas released the latest installment of his Indiana Jones series. He served as one of its writers and as a producer, while Steven Spielberg once again acted as director. Harrison Ford returned as the famed adventuring archaeologist in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull proved to be one of the summer’s biggest hits. In 2012, Lucas brought the story of the famed African-American World War II pilots known as “The Tuskegee Airmen” to the big screen in Red Tails, which may prove to be one of Lucas’ final “hands-on” project. Announcing his retirement from bigger projects, Lucas decided to sell his company Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company in October 2012.
Away from the camera, the filmmaker created the George Lucas Educational Foundation in the early 1990s. His organization encourages the use of project-based and team-based learning among other education reforms. After his 1983 divorce from film editor Marcia Griffin, Lucas spent many years as a single father to his adopted daughter Amanda, and adopted two more children, Katie and Jet. In January 2013, Lucas announced his engagement to Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, and in late June 2013, the couple wed at Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California.
Lucius Vorenus
One of two central characters (along with Titus Pullo) in the HBO/BBC series Rome, Vorenus is not typically mentioned in the history books, but was nonetheless mentioned by Julius Caesar himself as a participant of the Gallic War in the winter of 54-53 BC. According to Caesar’s account, Vorenus and Pullo were rival centurions in Quintus Cicero’s legion who quarreled continually over seniority and assignments.
In the HBO series, Vorenus’ legion is the 13th. It has been suggested, however, that the real Vorenus served in Caesar’s 11th Legion, but in his account of the siege, Caesar does not identify the numeral of the legion commanded by Quintus Cicero. In 54 BC, Caesar had eight full legions, the 7th through the 14th. Caesar’s account of the exploit of the real soldiers underlines their status as centurions; indeed, in the Roman legions, only centurions could get away with such dangerous acts of bravado. Their rivalry and competition for honors suggests that they were of equal status. Caesar refers to Vorenus only in a single campaign, and he is not mentioned by any other Roman author. Lucius Vorenus was portrayed in Rome by Kevin McKidd.
“Ludicrous speed”
Introduced in the 1987 Mel Brooks Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope parody Spaceballs, it is a velocity beyond the speed of light, beyond Ridiculous Speed, and so fast that it causes a human’s brain to go into his feet. Externally, any vessel achieving ludicrous speed will appear to have “gone to plaid” to the casual observer.
Lukara
Kahless the Unforgettable’s wife, who fought by his side against 500 Klingon warriors who attacked the Great Hall at Qam-Chee.
Luthor, Lex
First appearing in Action Comics #23 in 1940, and eventually becoming a DC Comics character, Superman’s archenemy was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster to be Superman’s main enemy. Son of wealthy Metropolis residents Lionel and Letitia Luthor, and brother to Lena Luthor, Luthor spent years in Smallville, Kansas with his Aunt Lena. There, he encountered Clark Kent and first learned about the existence of Smallville’s own hometown hero Superboy. He followed Superboy’s adventures with great zeal and soon became the young Kryptonian’s greatest fan. Superboy constructed a brand new state-of-the art laboratory for the eager would-be scientist, and with the new lab equipment at his disposal, Luthor set about experimenting with his many chemical solutions. He even created a non-sentient protoplasmic entity out of some of the more rare chemicals that Superboy provided him. Using the protoplasm as a template, Luthor sought to create an antidote to kryptonite poisoning. It was his intention to present the antidote to Superboy as a gift, as a means of solidifying their friendship. He succeeded in creating the antidote, but in his excitement, he knocked over a beaker, which set the laboratory ablaze. Superboy flew past the lab and noticed smoke pouring out of the windows. Noticing that Luthor had exposed kryptonite in the lab, Superboy remained outside and quickly decided to extinguish the fire in the lab with a gust of his super-breath which would put out the fire and remove the kryptonite to a safe distance. Superboy successfully extinguished the fire, but the blast accidentally mixed various chemicals together that destroyed all of Luthor’s experiments. These gases passed onto Luthor’s head, destroying his hair and left him completely bald. Enraged at the devastation of his work and his personal appearance, Luthor accused Superboy of destroying his experiments on purpose out of jealousy. From that moment onward, Lex Luthor became the sworn enemy of Superboy.
Lex soon began acting on his criminal impulses to attack Superboy with his ever-increasing array of weapons and devices, but despite their fearsome powers, Superboy always managed to defeat Lex and send him to the Smallville Juvenile Detention Center. Fearing that their son would never reform his ways, Lex’s parents decided to move away from Smallville and changed their last name to “Thorul” in hopes to raise their daughter Lena Thorul in a relatively peaceful life away from the evil Lex. Despite this name change, Lex would later find his sister and find some sort of reconciliation with her and her children.
Luthor is a complex man. A power-hungry criminal mastermind who freely admits to being “evil,” he considers Abraham Lincoln to be a “great man” (Superboy #85) and has, on occasion, performed acts of great nobility, such as saving the lives of millions on a dying world (Superman #164), for which he is considered a hero there. Still, Luthor continued in his plans to dominate the Earth and known universe even during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, where Lex and the surviving villains would temporarily side with our Earth’s superheroes.
On the small screen, Luthor was portrayed by John Shea in the 1993-97 series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and by Michael Rosenbaum in Smallville (2001-2011). On the big screen, Luthor has been portrayed by Gene Hackman in Superman: The Movie (1978), Superman II (198) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace; by Kevin Spacey in Superman Returns (2006); and by Jesse Eisenberg in 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2017’s Justice League. He is due to reprise the role in Justice League Part Two. See Superman.
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