‘Star Wars’ guru George Lucas adds Daytime Emmy to his laurels
This had to have been a first: A winner of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award -- an elite group whose ranks include cinema luminaries such as Orson Welles, Elizabeth Taylor, John Ford, Meryl Streep, Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred Astaire, Steven Spielberg and Mel Brooks -- walking on stage to accept a Daytime Emmy Award.
But there was George Lucas -- the creator of the “Star Wars” franchise, producer of the Indiana Jones franchise and Oscar-nominated writer-director of “American Graffiti” -- humbly standing Sunday evening before an audience of soap opera stars, game show producers and talk show hosts.
“Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” the 5-year-old computer-animated Cartoon Network series that Lucas created and oversees as executive producer, had just been announced as best special-class animated program in a ceremony at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. Making the announcement: Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia in the first three “Star Wars” feature films.
RELATED: Full Emmys 2013 coverage
Lucas, 69, proudly noted, “This is my first Emmy.” He thanked the show’s producers, writers and actors -- “and all those poor souls that toil over their computers.”
Many in the audience were thrilled that Lucas was sitting among them -- a feeling that “The Price Is Right” executive producer Mike Richards expressed when he accepted the Emmy for best game show.
“First of all,” Richards said, “I just want to say it’s really cool to win an award in front of George Lucas -- because that’s never probably going to happen again.”
ALSO:
Daytime Emmy Award list of winners
After 4,000 ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ Episodes, an Emmy for Monty Hall
The complete guide to home viewing
Get Screen Gab for everything about the TV shows and streaming movies everyone’s talking about.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
