Original Lucasfilm Employee, Robert Blalack, Tragically Passes Away

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star wars a new hope (l-r han solo, leia organa, luke skywalker)

Credit: Lucasfilm

Robert Blalack, one of Lucasfilm’s original employees — and a founder of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) — has tragically passed away from cancer complications at age 73.

robert blalack
Credit: Lucasfilm Archives

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Per The Hollywood Reporter:

[Oscar winner] Blalack died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Paris, his wife, writer Caroline Charron-Blalack, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Blalack also shared an Emmy for his VFX work on The Day After, the 1983 ABC telefilm about a nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union that drew 100 million viewers and was the highest-rated TV movie in history at the time.

star wars a new hope luke skywalker tosche station scene
Credit: Lucasfilm

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Primarily, however, Blalack was known for his work on Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) as part of George Lucas’s original crew.

The visual effects guru won an Academy Award for his work on the first Star Wars movie and once shared that starting ILM from scratch while production was ongoing was like “was like jumping out of a plane and stitching up the parachute during free fall.”

(l-r) grand moff tarkin, princess leia organa, and darth vader in a new hope
Credit: Lucasfilm

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Panama-born Blalack is survived by his wife, Caroline Charron-Blalack, and one son, Paul.

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