Charles Lippincott, a force behind ‘Star Wars,’ dies

Movie publicist helped usher in era of action figures, comic books, more

It was a strange little space movie, according to the Hollywood rumor mill, a pastiche of 1930s science fiction serials, Arthurian legend and religious mysticism made by a 33-yearold filmmaker who was in over his head.

But when George Lucas’ new movie opened on Memorial Day weekend in 1977, audiences flocked to see “Star Wars,” an interstellar fairy tale starring a trio of relative unknowns — Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher — and set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”

Local television crews interviewed fans waiting in line for repeat viewings (novelist Jonathan Lethem later recalled seeing the movie 21 times the summer it premiered), and “Star Wars” went on to make more than half a billion dollars worldwide, spawning one of the most lucrative movie franchises in history.

But for all its on-screen magic — its John Williams trumpet blasts, breathtaking dogfights, Laurel and Hardyesque droids and menagerie of slimy, furry, blaster-wielding aliens — the movie’s early success was in large part the result of Charles Lippincott, a former law student who helped pioneer a new way of promoting movies.

Lippincott, who died May 19 at age 80, spearheaded a whole universe of “Star Wars” action figures, comic books, lunchboxes, watches, belt buckles and toy lightsabers. Promoting a science-fiction movie at a time when few studio executives took the genre seriously, he drummed up interest at science fiction and comics conventions, developing a blueprint that has since been replicated for Marvel superhero movies and television series like “Doctor Who.”

‘We can make this work’

“Charley was one of the founding pillars of the ‘Star Wars’ films and phenomenon,” Lucas said in a tribute last month. “He began in earnest the concept of licensing motion pictures at a time when the only other company doing so was Disney. Charley was the one who said early on that ‘we can make this work’ and was the first person to both develop ‘Star Wars ‘licensing and engage with the fans. He had insights into marketing and public relations that were truly unparalleled.”

Lippincott later publicized science-fiction films such as “Alien” (1979) and “Flash Gordon” (1980), and produced movies including the zombie comedy “Night Life” (1989) and the comic book adaptation “Judge Dredd” (1995), starring Sylvester Stallone.

But he was most closely identified with “Star Wars,” later known as “Episode IV: A New Hope.” Lippincott had gone to film school at the University of Southern California with producer Gary Kurtz and Lucas, who hired him in late 1975 to oversee advertising, publicity, promotion and merchandising, months before filming began in the Tunisian desert and at a studio outside London.

Crucially, Lucas had turned down a more lucrative writer’s and director’s fee to secure the sequel and merchandising rights for “Star Wars,” later telling Rolling Stone that he “had visions of R2-D2 mugs and little windup robots” while writing the screenplay.

Lippincott helped bring those toy ideas to life. Well before the film’s release, he negotiated with Ballantine Books to release a “Star Wars” novel and worked with Marvel to publish a “Star Wars” comic book series. Crucially, he also struck a deal with Kenner, then a subsidiary of General Mills, to release “Star Wars” action figures and toys.

Recalling that the “Star Trek” television series had inspired a raft of unofficial products, Lippincott said he copyrighted “everything I could think of,” enabling Lucas’ company, now known as Lucasfilm, to control the “Star Wars” brand and flood the market with toys and tie-ins. The licensing deals promoted the movie and went on to make a fortune for Lucas, whose net worth is estimated at $5.7 billion.

“Just as ‘Star Wars’ became far more popular than anyone expected it could, the licensing became far more financially successful than anyone had imagined,” said Craig Miller, a publicity consultant who became Lucasfilm’s first director of fan relations. “But to a great extent,” he added by phone, “‘Star Wars’ had the opportunity to be successful because Charley convinced people to be there that opening week.”

With few bankable stars that he could pitch to magazine writers or talk-show producers, Lippincott developed a novel publicity strategy, taking “Star Wars” to San Diego Comic-Con and other conventions to show film clips and announce the movie’s upcoming premiere. He was often accompanied by Hamill, a comics fan who played the film’s lightsaber-wielding hero, Luke Skywalker.

Marketing legend

“He became a legend of marketing for a reason,” Hamill said last month. “He was brilliant at what he did. We traveled the world together promoting ‘Star Wars’ before anyone knew what it was.”

After the movie’s release, Lippincott oversaw a flurry of publicity requests, joining an actor playing Darth Vader, the black-helmeted villain, when the character left its footprints in wet cement outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

“In our wildest dreams,” he wrote in a 2015 blog post, “we could not have predicted how massive a hit we had on our hands.”

Yet while “Star Wars” broke box office records, Lippincott said his relationship with Lucasfilm soured, amid accusations that he had signed a toy deal with Kenner too soon, costing the company millions of dollars. He left after Fox offered him a job on “Alien” and was not involved with the “Star Wars” sequels.

“The more I read of ‘Star Wars’ financial success, the bitterer I get — especially during times when I’m so broke I’m eating ramen and living on borrowed money,” he wrote in 2015, recalling his mindset in the years after the film’s release. “I know people who have been able to retire off of points from a successful film who did less than I. I know, had I been given my due for building the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, I would be eating better than instant noodles. But, what’s the point in making myself miserable? Like old girlfriends, it’s behind me.”

Charles Myers Lippincott Jr. was born Oct. 28, 1939. Little information is available about his early life, but the New York Times reported that he was born in the Berkshires town of

Adams, Mass., where his mother was a nurse and his father a businessman. The family later settled in the Chicago suburb of Oswego, Ill.

In 1961, Lippincott received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Northwestern University in nearby Evanston. He attended law school before changing course and entering USC, where one of his professors helped him land a job as a publicist at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, leading to work on movies including “Westworld” (1973) and “Family Plot” (1976), Alfred Hitchcock’s last film.

His death was announced on social media by his wife, Geraldine “Bumpy” Lippincott, who said that he had been hospitalized and had a heart attack. Additional information was not immediately available, but the Lippincotts had been living in Vermont, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Lippincott was a comic book fan who produced and cowrote the documentary “Comic Book Confidential” (1988), a survey of the medium. But he said that his first love was music, especially jazz. He had 20,000 vinyl records at his home, by one count, and said he would have loved to own a horn played on by his idols Miles Davis or Ornette Coleman.

“I suppose my getting a thrill out of putting my lips to the mouthpiece Miles used to perform ‘Sketches of Spain’ would be the same as someone wanting the T-shirt I wore at Grauman’s during the footprint ceremony,” he wrote in 2015. “I can’t understand it, but that’s because I don’t think of myself in the same way as I think of Miles. I’m just a dweeb who happened to work on a movie you like.”