The Star Wars character designer Ralph MCQuarrie has died, aged 82. Washington Post reports that MCQuarrie passed away on March 3, 2012 at his Berkeley, California home, having suffered complications from Parkinson's disease. MCQuarrie also worked on creating a huge number of iconic characters from other globally successful Hollywood films, such as E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In 1986, MCQuarrie won an Academy award for Best Visual Effects for his work on Cocoon.

In a statement posted online, George Lucas, the director of Star Wars, said "Ralph MCQuarrie was the first person I hired to help me envision Star Wars. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations and say, 'Do it like this.'" One of MCQuarrie's most infamous costume designs is that of the Star Wars villain Darth Vader; in fact it was MCQuarrie's idea to include a breathing device on Darth Vader's costume, so that he could survive in space; it was this that led to Darth Vader's recognizable raspy voice in the films.

In the 1960s, MCQuarrie worked as a technical artist for Boeing and was involved in creating the diagrams for a manual on constructing the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. He later worked as an illustrator, animating sequences of the Apollo Space Mission for CBS News and NASA. Iain MCCaig, who worked on the modern Star Wars prequels, paid tribute to MCQuarrie, saying that "He did more than just design costumes. . . . He helped capture the story-telling moments in really dazzling pictures."