John Barry

John Barry (1935 – June 1, 1979) was the production designer of the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and a second unit director on Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.

Biography

The "Lash La Rue" scene, which was devised by John Barry and visualized by Ralph McQuarrie

The "Lash La Rue" scene, which was devised by John Barry and visualized by Ralph McQuarrie

The British production designer officially started work on A New Hope on August 1, 1975. He rented space at London's Lee Electrics to build a landspeeder and to create droid props with John Stears, beginning with a cardboard mock-up of R2-D2 based on Ralph McQuarrie's paintings. To that end, Barry worked with R2-D2 actor Kenny Baker, with director George Lucas visiting the workshop mid-August and approving the R2-D2 design.

In London, John Barry also supervised Harry Lange of the production art department in designing control panels, and had extensive conversations with Lucas about the sets. Barry appreciated the director's interest in all components of the filmmaking process, and while the production designer's personal taste aligned more with the style of the 1968 film Barbarella, he understood Lucas' vision for Star Wars to have an everyday, lived-in aesthetic. On August 20, Barry met with McQuarrie and Lucas in the United States to discuss the sets in greater detail. McQuarrie thought that Barry was introduced as the art director to the Star Wars project, although it was Norman Reynolds who took that role. According to McQuarrie, after about three days of talks, Barry came up with the "Lash La Rue" scene: Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa would swing across a chasm from a retracting bridge.

Afterward, Barry returned to England to supervise the making of the sets. Having realized the size of the production from reading the film script and the limitation of shooting stages, he told producer Gary Kurtz that they needed more than one film studio; Kurtz thus chose EMI Elstree and Shepperton Studios, with their freelance crew essentially taking over the whole of Elstree for the duration of the production. Barry, Reynolds, Kurtz, and Lucas inspected Shepperton and its gargantuan H Stage.

Barry and production manager Robert Watts then traveled to North Africa to location-scout. Later in the year, Barry's art department budget was abruptly cut by ten percent due to Star Warss troubles with film studio 20th Century Fox, and Lucas and Barry were forced to revisit the script—which the director was developing into a fourth draft—and attempt to reduce costs.

Two weeks into filming The Empire Strikes Back (May 31, 1979), he collapsed on set and was hospitalized as his temperature rose to 104 degrees Farenheit (40 degrees Celsius). He died at 2am on June 1, a victim of meningitis. His memorial was held on June 11 at St. Paul's church, Grove Road, London (bordering Hounslow and Chiswick). He was cremated that day.

Sources

Appearances