As the producer of such seminal blockbusters as Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and American Graffiti, Gary Kurtz suffered the double-edged sword of being behind some of the most influential films in Hollywood history, but all the while, having to stand in the shadow of the far more publicly recognizable George Lucas. Kurtzs relative anonymity was caused in part by what some regard as a premature, if not acrimonious, split with the Lucas in the early 1980s.
Born July 27, 1940, young Kurtz grew up in Los Angeles. He studied film at the University of Southern California from 1959 to 1962, and upon graduation, found work as a cameraman in a field that was very tough for inexperienced new filmmakers industrial films. He next landed production manager or assistant director gigs on a variety of low-budget Roger Corman movies, including Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965) Queen of Blood (1966) and most notably, the Monte Hellman directed Ride in the Whirlwind (1965), written by and starring a young Jack Nicholson.
During this time, he met a young film director named Francis Ford Coppola who also worked for Corman, as writer/director of the feature, Dementia 13 (1963). But as was the case with many young people during that time, Kurtzs career was put on hold when he was drafted into service by the Marine Corp. As a conscientious objector, he was assigned duties as a combat cameraman, serving in Vietnam for three years.
Once safely back home, Kurtz returned to low-budget filmmaking. He partnered up again with Hellman, who was directing the film Two Lane Blacktop (1971), starring James Taylor and Warren Oates, and brought on Kurtz as associate producer. The low-budget Universal film was shot in Techniscope, a specialty film format that put Kurtz back in touch with Coppola for the equipment. Coppola, in turn, recommended Kurtz to his protégé at the time, George Lucas, and the fateful relationship began. Kurtz also went on to produce the movie Chandler, released the same year.
A few years later, Kurtz was called upon by Lucas to produce his 1960s coming-of-age tale, American Graffiti (1973). Kurtz became a trusted and valuable right-hand man to Lucas, as the small production struggled with a rigorous all-night shooting schedule and mostly inexperienced actors, nearly all of whom including Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford and Cindy Williams would go on to become stars. With its $700,000 budget and $50 million gross, American Graffiti long held the record for the most profitable film in history.
Their working relationship secure, Kurtz next worked with Lucas on his dream project a sci-fi film originally intended as a Flash Gordon-type franchise which went on to become Star Wars (1977). Again, Kurtz proved invaluable to Lucas, helping sell the otherworldly concept to Twentieth Century Fox, running interference with a persnickety British film crew, and managing the development of entirely new photographic technology to generate the mind-blowing special effects.
The astounding success of Star Wars brought massive personal fortunes to both Lucas and Kurtz. They collaborated again on its sequel, The Empire Strikes Back (1980). For this, the second installment, Kurtz came up with the title and supervised production in England, even shooting second unit himself while Lucas remained in the U.S. to oversee the increasingly complex visual effects. Having bankrolled the entire movie himself in order to maintain complete control, Lucas financial exposure put stress on the production and his relationship with Kurtz. Nevertheless, Empire was, not surprisingly, a monster hit, earning Lucas all of his money back and more. Although the much darker sequel confused critics and fans at the time, these same people would later recognize Empire as the superior film of the original trilogy, due in no small part to Kurtzs creative vision as well as that of Lucas himself.
But due to tensions during production, Lucas elected to part ways with Kurtz. As Lucas continued his space saga with other staff, Kurtz, still brimming with ideas, moved on to his own projects most notably, The Dark Crystal (1982), which he produced for Muppets creator and the films director, Jim Henson. Despite impressive effects and then state-of-the-art puppetry, the dark tale failed to capture the imagination of audiences more accustomed to whimsy and humor from Henson. Next, Kurtz produced Return to Oz (1985), a slightly bent take on the much beloved fantasy film, which ended up turning off both the studio and audiences who questioned what the point of remaking such a film was. Not long after, Kurtz hit upon hard times his marriage ended in 1986, and between a settlement, court payments, and failed business ventures, he had lost almost the entire $10 million he earned from Star Wars.
After remarrying twice, Kurtz returned to the producers chair with a low-budget sci-fi thriller, Slipstream, in 1989, starring Mark Luke Skywalker Hamill and future star Bill Paxton. He next produced the feature film The Steal (1994), and, following a decade long sabbatical, co-executive produced the television movie, The Tale of Jack Frost in 2004.
Despite sporadic post-Empire projects in the years that followed that films release, true Star Wars fans knew of his indispensable vision to the original trilogy and for that reason, he was never forgotten. Armed with this knowledge, Kurtz returned to filmmaking, producing the indie film, 5-25-77 (2006), which follows the exploits of 1977-era teenagers as they ready themselves to see Star Wars for the first time an event which, much like in real life, will go on to both capture their imaginations and change their lives.
Copyright © Baseline 2009.