Gloria Katz Dead: Writer "American Graffiti", the writer of "Star Wars" was 76 years old



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20h51 PST 28/11/2018

by

Mike Barnes

The Oscar nominee collaborated with her husband, Willard Huyck, on George Lucas's films and many other projects.

Gloria Katz, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter who has partnered with her husband, Willard Huyck, for the George Lucas classics American Graffiti and Wars of the stars, is dead. She was 76 years old.

Katz died Sunday at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long battle with ovarian cancer, Huyck said. The Hollywood journalist. She died at their 49th wedding anniversary.

Katz and her husband also wrote Steven Spielberg's screenplay Indiana Jones and the accursed temple (1984), produced by Lucas from his story.

The couple wrote the screenplay of Stanley Donan A lucky woman (1975) as well as those for Messiah of Evil (1973) French postcards (1979) Best defense (1984) Howard the duck (1986) – all led by Huyck – and Radio assassinations (1994).

They shared an Oscar nomination with Lucas for their work on American graffiti (1973).

Born in Los Angeles on October 25, 1942, Katz studied at UC Berkeley as an English Major. She went to UCLA to obtain her graduate degree in history, but left with a masters degree in film. She married Huyck, who became friends with Lucas at USC in 1969.

Lucas wanted her husband "to talk about the cruise for American graffiti, and I came with the package, "she recalled in a 2017 interview.

She said Lucas had "a lot of reservations" about his scenario for his follow-up, Star wars (1977), filming is about to begin. He said: "Polis it – write everything you want and then I'll check it and see what I need," he said. she says. "George did not want anyone to know we had worked on the screenplay, so we were in a cone of silence."

Katz noted that she and Huyck had tried to add as much humor as possible and had written about 30% of the dialogue of the film. They also made Princess Leia of Carrie Fisher a woman who "can take command, she does not take shit … instead of [being] a beautiful woman who dragged to be saved, "she said.

Katz was a member of the WGA board and advisor at the Academy Film Museum, which is expected to open next year.

President of the Los Angeles Photographic Arts Council, Katz and her husband were collectors of Japanese photographs. Their collection was recently acquired by the Freer Gallery of Art and Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. They were also the authors of the book 2017 Views of Japan and active members of the Getty Museum.

Survivors include their daughter, Rebecca.

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