{"id":54663,"date":"2018-09-25T18:48:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T09:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/?p=54663"},"modified":"2018-09-25T18:48:38","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T09:18:38","slug":"vale-gary-kurtz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/2018\/09\/25\/vale-gary-kurtz\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale – Gary Kurtz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Long-time Lucasfilm producer Gary Kurtz, who produced both Star Wars<\/em> and The Empire Strikes Back<\/em>, has passed away.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr Kurtz began his career in film as an assistant director during the mid-60’s, notably Ride In The Whirlwind<\/em> and Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet<\/em>, before rising through production ranks including production manager and sound technician for films as diverse as Blood Bath, The Shooting<\/em> and The Hostage<\/em>, before he joined the US Marine Corps in 1966. After leaving the Corps in 1969, Kurzt took up roles for both MGM and Universal Pictures, before beginning his long-standing relationship with George Lucas and Lucasfilm.<\/p>\n

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Kurtz (left) with director George Lucas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kurzt produced 1973’s American Graffiti<\/em> alongside director George Lucas, with film school friend Francis Ford Coppola coming on to serve as co-producer after signing with Universal Pictures. The film was nominated for a number of Oscars including Best Picture, losing out to The Sting<\/em>. Following the success of American Graffiti, Kurtz and Lucas would go on to make Star Wars<\/em><\/a> (later subtitled A New Hope<\/em>) in 1977, which would transform not only their careers but cinema as a whole. Kurtz would go on to produce a Star Wars<\/em> sequel, The Empire Strikes Back<\/em><\/a>, in 1980, which would become the highest grossing film of that year and the best received entry into the franchise to date. A clash of ideas over the second sequel, Return of The Jedi<\/em><\/a>, would see Kurtz exit Lucasfilm, in the mid 1980’s.<\/p>\n

Following his departure, Kurzt would produce a number of successful feature films including The Dark Crystal<\/em><\/a> for Jim Henson, and Return To Oz<\/em> (1985). He reunited with Star Wars<\/em> star Mark Hamill for the 1989 sci-fi flick Slipstream<\/em>, although it was a financial failure.<\/p>\n

Gary Kurzt passed away on September 23rd, aged 78.<\/p>\n

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Irvin Kershner (left), Kurtz and George Lucas (right) on the set of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long-time Lucasfilm producer Gary Kurtz, who produced both Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48482,"featured_media":54665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituary"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1.jpg",1000,562,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1-150x84.jpg",150,84,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1-350x197.jpg",350,197,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1-720x405.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1.jpg",1000,562,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1.jpg",1000,562,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1.jpg",1000,562,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1.jpg",540,303,false],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1.jpg",150,84,false],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1.jpg",300,169,false],"sow-carousel-default":["https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/gary-kurtz-1-272x182.jpg",272,182,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Rodney Twelftree","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/author\/rodney\/"},"category_info":"Obituary<\/a>","tag_info":"Obituary","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fernbyfilms.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}