Katz and her husband shared an Oscar nomination with director George Lucas for „American Graffiti“ and secretly doctored his script for „Star Wars.“<\/b>
\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 A Hollywood writer and director has announced the death of his wife and longtime collaborator, Gloria Katz, who co-wrote \u201cAmerican Graffiti\u201d and helped give Princess Leia her power in \u201cStar Wars.\u201d 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 \u201cAmerican Graffiti\u201d and secretly doctored his script for \u201cStar Wars.\u201d The Reporter quoted Katz as saying they shaped Carrie Fisher\u2019s Leia into someone who \u201ccan take command,\u201d not \u201cjust a beautiful woman that schlepped along to be saved.\u201d
They also wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg\u2019s \u201cIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,\u201d which Lucas produced, and later co-wrote \u201cLucky Lady,\u201d \u201cMessiah of Evil,\u201d \u201cFrench Postcards,\u201d \u201cBest Defense,\u201d \u201cHoward the Duck,\u201d and \u201cRadioland Murders.\u201d
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) search for an escape route on the maze-like Imperial Death Star in \u201cStar Wars.\u201d| PHOTO \u00a9LUCAS FILM LTD
Born in Los Angeles on Oct. 25,1942, Katz majored in English at the University of California, Berkeley, then earned a masters in film at UCLA. In 1969, she married Huyck, a college friend of Lucas at the University of Southern California.
The Reporter quoted Katz as saying in a 2017 interview that Lucas wanted her husband \u201cto write about cruising for American Graffiti, and I sort of came with the package.\u201d
She said Lucas had \u201ca lot of reservations\u201d about his \u201cStar Wars\u201d script as filming was about to begin.
\u201cHe said, \u2018Polish it \u2014 write anything you want and then I\u2019ll go over it and see what I need,’\u201d she said. \u201cGeorge didn\u2019t want anyone to know we worked on the script, so we were in a cone of silence.\u201d
Katz said she and Huyck tried to add as much humor as possible and wrote about 30 percent of the film\u2019s dialogue.
Katz was on the board of the Writers Guild, was an adviser at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, set to open next year, and served as chair of the Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles.
Survivors include their daughter, Rebecca.<\/p>\n