Richard Marquand
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Richard Marquand (April 17, 1938 - September 4, 1987) was a Welsh film director.
Born in Cardiff, he was educated at Emanuel School, the Université d'Aix-Marseille in Marseille, France and King's College, Cambridge. In 1970, he began a career writing and directing for television and motion pictures. Some of his noted films include Eye of the Needle (1981) and Jagged Edge (1985).
His work on Eye of the Needle impressed George Lucas so much that he chose him to direct Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Marquand is the only non-American to have directed a Star Wars movie.
According to a magazine interview with Irvin Kershner in May 2004, Kershner states that Richard Marquand didn't direct all of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, it was Kershner's assistant director and Lucas who took over after the actors didn't respond very well to Richard Marquand. The relationship between Marquand and Lucas was said to be bad. On the DVD commentary, however, Lucas claims he worked quite well with Marquand.
He died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California at the age of only 49.
