Star Wars Artist dead at the age of 82.

Ralph McQuarrie, a one of a kind artist and designer has passed away yesterday at the age of 82. Not so many fans of "Star Wars" trilogy are aware that he was behind all those unique characters and plateaus that inspired generations. George Lucas, filmmaker and director, mourned his friend and said in an official statement:" With great sorrow I mourn one of the best visionary conceptual designers and artists. He was the first one whom I spoke to about Star Wars, then after he surprised me with tons of graphics and drawings". Lucas also added: "He was the inspiration for the cast and crew. Whenever I ran out of words explaining my thoughts, his drawings would save me".In addition to the original trilogy, McQuarrie invented the characters in "E.T" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" by Steven Spielberg and "the Cocoon" in which he won an Oscar for Visual Effects with director Ron Howard.