Ralph McQuarrie (1929-2012), the artist who transformed George Lucas’s concepts into the images for the intergalactic story of the Star Wars movies, died Saturday March 3 at his home in California. Mr. McQuarrie created many of the original concept images for a variety of sci-fi and adventure films of the 1970s through the 1990s. McQuarie’s imagination and illustration skills gave visual form to such unforgettable characters as R2-D2 and C-3PO.

Ralph McQuarrie (1929-2012) | Star Wars concept artist