The Quietus is saddened to learn that conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie passed away at his home in California at the weekend, aged 82. The Indiana-born illustrator was best known for bringing George Lucas' original space opera trilogy to vivid life with character and set drawings (small selection below) for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back (in which he had an uncredited cameo, appearing as General Pharl McQuarrie in front of his own matte painting) and Return Of The Jedi.

He went on to create the look of the late '70s Battlestar Galactica TV series, worked with Steven Spielberg on Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and won a visual effects Oscar for 1985's Cocoon.