Looking back at Star Wars Weekly – issue 5

'Win the cast of Star Wars': the cover of Star Wars Weekly issue five

"Win the cast of Star Wars – great contest inside!"

So ran a strapline on the front of Star Wars Weekly issue 5 in the UK, on March 8 1978.  Win the cast of Star Wars? That really did sound like a hell of a competition.

Mr. Star Wars - George Lucas in 1977

Quietly single-minded: George Lucas 
shooting Star Wars in 1976

What do we know about George Lucas – the young man with enough drive and imagine to make the most successful movie the world had ever seen?

Today, of course, he is a multi-billionaire , a retired company head, semi-retired film-maker, a philanthropist, and the object of roughly equal adoration and derision from Star Wars fans. But who was he back in 1977, when he turned 33 just before his long-planned space film was released?