Gary Kurtz was born on July 27, 1940, in Los Angeles, California.

In 1973, he co-produced American Graffiti. He later produced Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1977, and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. In the early 1980's, Kurtz co-produced The Dark Crystal, a joint venture between Lord Grade and Jim Henson, which was co-directed by Frank Oz.

Kurtz and Lucas first collaborated on the 1973 film American Graffiti, which became a huge box office hit. Kurtz then became producer of Star Wars, released in 1977, and its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, released in 1980. Many of the more mystical and spiritual elements of Star Wars were influenced by Kurtz, who had extensively studied comparative religion. Kurtz is a Latter Day Saint.

Kurtz has claimed that he and George Lucas clashed over how to progress the Star Wars series. Kurtz recalled after Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, Lucas became convinced that audiences no longer cared about the story; they were simply there for thrills and entertainment, and he began to deviate from the original nine-episode bible starting with Return of the Jedi, at which point Kurtz quit the series. Kurtz has expressed his dissatisfaction with Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. Other sources have suggested that Kurtz was removed from the franchise by Lucas after he had allowed production on The Empire Strikes Back to run seriously over-schedule and over-budget.

Mr. Kurtz accepted the Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo Award for Star Wars at IguanaCon in 1978.

It is a matter of public record that Kurtz's final collaboration with Lucas, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, was an expensive and difficult production. Records at Elstree indicate that the movie took 175 shooting days having been budgeted at 100, which forced Lucas to borrow $10 million to complete the film. Kurtz had to help direct along with David Tomblin, Irvin Kershner, Harley Cokeliss and John Barry (who died during production of meningitis) to bring the film in on even this revised schedule and budget. Lucas visited the set in London only a couple of times. There are photos published of Lucas on the "bog" set consulting the production, but Kershner directed all the scenes on that set.

During filming of The Empire Strikes Back George Lucas suffered an apparent panic attack, accusing the filmmakers of ruining his movie. He followed this by taking the existing footage into an editing bay and cut together a fast-paced action version of early scenes, excising plot-oriented content, then showed it to Kurtz and other members of cast and crew, who reacted with laughter. Lucas later admitted this was a mistake.

Kurtz's wife, Meredith, planned the film's 'wrap party' in late August 1979 and the Kurtzes hosted the affair. The actual completion of photography was a month later. Kurtz did not leave the movie before its completion and was actively involved from post production through its release in theatres in the U.S. and the UK. He was replaced by Howard Kazanjian for Return of the Jedi.

Even after the financial success of The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas regarded The Empire Strikes Back as a failure. It was after this pronouncement that Kurtz and Lucas parted company.

It is notable that the more mystical aspects of the Jedi were absent from Star Wars films following Kurtz's departure, while similar mystical elements appeared in Kurtz's later muppet fantasy film The Dark Crystal. Lucas' replacement of mystical or spiritual explanations with more scientific-seeming explanations such as midichlorians in the Star Wars prequels has faced heavy criticism from Star Wars fans.

External linksEdit

• Gary Kurtz at the Internet Movie Database
• Gary Kurtz on Wikipedia
• Rebel Rehearsal on Hyperspace (content now obsolete; backup links 1 2 on Archive.org)