Ralph McQuarrie, one remarkable artist, and Korean War combat vet, that you might not recognize the name of, but are very likely to recognize his art. After all, only one artist created the look of a galaxy far far away and was essential in it coming to movie screens in 1977

His career included work on the original Star Wars trilogy, the original Battlestar Galactica television series, the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and the film Cocoon, for which he won an Academy Award.

Without Ralph McQuarrie, there would be no Star Wars. 

He served in the United States Army during the Korean War, surviving a shot to the head. After returning from the war, McQuarrie moved to California in the 1960s, studying at the Art Center School, then in downtown Los Angeles.(it is now known as Art Center College of Pasadena )

He got his 1st job in art as an illustrator for Boeing, in the parts catalog. (Hence my legit reason to post about him here). 

He then went to work for defense contractor Litton Industries, drawing guidance and control equipment

Then he went into storyboarding for Boeing, who were making films for presentations, as well as diagrams for a manual on constructing the 747 Jumbo Jet

That led to working for CBS and NASA designing film posters and animating CBS News' coverage of the Apollo space program.

He was working on a film for Encyclopedia Britannica, when they had a screening of THX 1138.

 The young filmmaker George Lucas was impressed by McQuarrie's work and met with him to discuss his plans for Star Wars. Lucas sought visual reference material to support his pitch to film studios.

Lucas knew it would take more than his words and descriptions to convince a studio to support such an ambitious project, and reached out to McQuarrie to help visualize the planets, vehicles, and characters he only saw in his head. 

McQuarrie's concept paintings were instrumental in helping Lucas to win approval from 20th Century Fox; armed with vivid illustrations of his planned movie, Lucas was able to convince Fox executives to take a gamble and fund his Star Wars project.

McQuarrie’s style crafted the visual design of the entire galaxy to come. As Lucas said “Ralph’s contribution to the Star Wars world is incalculable. His genial contribution, in the form of unequalled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations and say, 'do it like this'."

McQuarrie designed many of the film's characters, including Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/stuff-you-missed-in-history-cl-21124503/episode/ralph-mcquarrie-part-1-82377231/

https://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/

https://www.starwars.com/news/ralph-mcquarries-most-memorable-masterpieces