Artist Ralph McQuarrie died 3 March 2012. Born in Gary, Indiana, on 13 June 1929, he shared an Academy Award for Visual Effects for his work on Cocoon (1985), but will probably be most remembered for his work on Star Wars.
According to his web site, McQuarrie suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, and had thus retired from creating artwork several years before his death. In his early days, he worked as a technical illustrator for Boeing, and designed film posters and animation for CBS News’s coverage of the Apollo space program.
In 1975, George Lucas hired McQuarrie to design some characters and sets for his upcoming science fiction classic Star Wars, and wound up working on all three original films. Lucas gave him an uncredited cameo in The Empire Strikes Back as General Pharl McQuarrie (he walks through the rebel hangar on Hoth). His character was deemed worthy of its own action figure.
McQuarrie also designed the alien spaceships in two big Steven Spielberg movies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. (1982), and did work on the original Battlestar Galactica. Other sf films he worked on include: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), The Golden Child (1986), *batteries not included (1987), and Nightbreed (1990).
Other sf work includes the Back to the Future ride at Universal Studios, the unproduced 1990s television show Cozmo’s Bar & Grill, and an unproduced Irvin Kershner version of Forbidden Planet. In addition, he provided robot paintings for Isaac Asimov’s Robot Dreams and Robot Visions, advertising materials for the likes of Bud Light, Panasonic, Chevrolet, and Pepsi, and much more. Many galleries of his work are available on his web site.
Announcing his death, his web site writes: “It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the passing of Ralph McQuarrie.
“People say you should never meet your heroes. Ralph was the exception to that rule. We were all fans of his amazing art long before we were blessed with his friendship. But once you got to know Ralph it was impossible not to become a fan of Ralph the man.
“Ralph was a very special person for many more reasons than his undeniable brilliance with a brush. He was an especially kind, sensitive, deep, modest, funny and fascinating gentleman. And as fine a role model as any one could have wished for.
“His influence on design will be felt forever. There’s no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say… that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted.”