Of all the words that come to mind when people consider what it means to be a celebrity, it could easily be argued that excess is the best one. After all, from the outside looking in, there is nothing about being a star that appears to be subtle in the least.
In the case of movie and TV stars, average people get to see them on the big or little screen pretending to be involved in one incredible situation after another. Then there are all the famous musicians, most of whom spend a good portion of their year traveling all over the world so they can perform in front of massive crowds of adoring fans. On top of all that, famous people get to wear gorgeous outfits as they attend star-studded where they pose for a throng of photographers.
Since most celebrities get paid lots of money for their craft of choice, they also get the joy of spending their fortune in some pretty excessive ways. For example, all of us take it for granted that famous people live in mind-boggling homes, drive wildly expensive vehicles, and adorn themselves in over the top jewelry. While it can be said that George Lucas indulges in some of those excesses, it also is noteworthy that he spends a lot of money in a very responsible way each year, on firefighters.
Redefining The Film Industry
Once George Lucas graduated from USC, he made his first feature film, THX 1138. After that movie came and went without much notice, Lucas enjoyed his first major success with his second film, American Graffiti. A surprise hit, the movie made a huge amount of money based on its budget and many people still consider it to be one of the best films ever made.
After the huge success of American Graffiti, many people may have expected George Lucas’ next movie to be a similarly grounded affair. Instead, Lucas went the exact opposite route when he spent years making Star Wars. Such a massive success that it completely redefined the film industry at the time, as everyone already knows, the Star Wars franchise has become an entertainment juggernaut.
After the massive success of Star Wars made George Lucas one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, he opted to team up with Steven Speilberg. Really close friends since they both attended USC, Lucas and Spielberg came up Raiders of the Lost Ark's story and characters together. Since then, Lucas has been heavily involved in the production of each Indiana Jones movie.
At The Vanguard
Given the fact that George Lucas created some of the world’s most famous stories and characters, it makes sense that he is best known for those accomplishments. However, practically every film that has come out over the last several decades has Lucas’ fingerprints on them due to his role in pushing film technology forward.
As a film director and producer, George Lucas spent a lot of his time pushing the envelope of what was possible in terms of special effects. Likely for that reason, Lucas went on to form three of the most important entertainment companies of all-time, Lucasfilm, LucasArts, and Industrial Lights & Magic.
A powerhouse in the video game industry, LucasArts released many titles itself and helped move the entire business forward with its technological advances. Almost certainly the single most important special effects company in history, Industrial Lights & Magic made many of the most amazing visuals in film history possible. Eventually bought by Disney, Lucasfilm is the production company that released all of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies among many others. If all of that wasn’t impressive enough, Lucasfilm spawned several other important movie companies that later spun off including Pixar and THX.
Unusual Expense
As the head of so many companies, George Lucas needed to find a place that could accommodate his own workspace and many of his employees as well. For that reason, it is a good thing that he began to create a facility that is known as Skywalker Ranch in the late-‘70s. Said to have cost Lucas $100 million to build, Skywalker Ranch is the home of loads of expensive equipment. It should also be noted that at any given moment, Skywalker Ranch employees are busy working on a slew of anticipated films and it would be a huge deal if their progress was lost.
Given everything that goes on at Skywalker Ranch and all the people that work there, it would be a disaster if the facility was destroyed by a fire. Aware of that, Geroge Lucas has created a fire brigade complete with firetrucks he owns and 12 full-time firefighters that serve his facility. As it turns out, that is a really good thing as a fire broke out at Skywalker Ranch in 2013 and the firefighters helped to put it out alongside an advanced sprinkler system. Lucas' firefighters have also done a lot of good as he regularly sends them out to aid the Marin County firefighters, including the time they helped put out a wildfire.