Marcia Lucas, Oscar-winning ‘Star Wars’ editor, dies at age 80

Marcia Lucas, who won an Academy Award for editing the original 1977 “Star Wars,” died Wednesday from metastatic cancer in Rancho Mirage, California, surrounded by loved ones, attorney Deidre Von Rock said in a statement to the Associated Press. She was 80.

Often called the unsung hero of “Star Wars,” Lucas convinced then-husband George Lucas that Obi-Wan Kenobi should die in his lightsaber duel with Darth Vader and become a spirit guide to Luke Skywalker. She also assembled the film’s climactic Death Star attack sequence from what George Lucas later described to Rolling Stone as “40,000 feet of dialogue footage” of pilots, woven together with the battle itself.

Beyond “Star Wars,” her editing credits included “Return of the Jedi,” “THX 1138,” “American Graffiti,” and three Martin Scorsese films: “Taxi Driver,” “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and “New York, New York.”

She is survived by daughters Amanda Lucas and Amy Soper, and grandchildren Felix Hallikainen, Aeliana Hallikainen and Knox Soper. “Her influence on film is indelible,” the family said in a statement.