George Lucas

A near-fatal auto crash in 1962 derailed his ambitions to be a race-car driver. Won a Warner Bros. scholarship in 1967 and spent six months as an assistant to Francis Ford Coppola on Finian's Rainbow . Universal studio brass initially disliked the low-budget American Graffiti so much they wanted to bypass a theatrical release and sell it straight to TV. It went on to gross more than $100 million. Star Wars was turned down by several studios before Fox agreed to finance it for about $10 million;… Show more Lucas waived a portion of his directing fee in return for shared ownership of the merchandising and sequel rights for the series. Net worth, according to Forbes magazine, is estimated at $3.5 billion. ~ Rovi

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