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Omaha Steve

(99,067 posts)
Thu Nov 29, 2018, 05:36 PM Nov 2018

Gloria Katz, 'American Graffiti' screenwriter, dies at 76

Source: Omaha World Herald-AP

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Hollywood writer and director has announced the death of his wife and longtime collaborator, Gloria Katz, who co-wrote "American Graffiti" and helped give Princess Leia her power in "Star Wars." She was 76.

Willard Huyck told the Hollywood Reporter that Katz died on Sunday, their 49th wedding anniversary, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after battling ovarian cancer.

The couple shared an Oscar nomination with director George Lucas for "American Graffiti" and secretly doctored his script for "Star Wars." The Reporter quoted Katz as saying they shaped Carrie Fisher's Leia into someone who "can take command," not "just a beautiful woman that schlepped along to be saved."

They also wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," which Lucas produced, and later co-wrote "Lucky Lady," ''Messiah of Evil," ''French Postcards," ''Best Defense," ''Howard the Duck," and "Radioland Murders."



Read more: https://www.omaha.com/news/nation/gloria-katz-american-graffiti-screenwriter-dies-at/article_0a818949-360c-5cc7-bb88-86e210ac7147.html

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Gloria Katz, 'American Graffiti' screenwriter, dies at 76 (Original Post) Omaha Steve Nov 2018 OP
Wow. R.I.P. BumRushDaShow Nov 2018 #1

BumRushDaShow

(127,300 posts)
1. Wow. R.I.P.
Thu Nov 29, 2018, 05:49 PM
Nov 2018

Have seen "American Grafitti", Indiana Jones (all 3 originals) and "Howard the Duck".

Glad that decision was made to make Leia feisty because certainly, the young Carrie Fisher was up to that task and gave the character the right amount of gravitas.

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