Robert Watts, The Producer of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones," Dies at 86
Robert Watts, a British producer and production manager who played a key role in helping George Lucas with the first Star Wars film and worked on the next two movies in the series, as well as the first three Indiana Jones films, has passed away at the age of 86.
Watts died peacefully in his sleep on Monday at his home in East Sussex, England, according to his representative, Julian Owen. Owen shared with The Hollywood Reporter, "We spent a decade taking him to conventions worldwide, where he enjoyed meeting fans and discussing his career."
In addition to his work on Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Watts collaborated with Steven Spielberg on movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991).
For the difficult production of the first Star Wars film, Robert Watts worked as a production supervisor alongside production designer John Barry.
They traveled to Morocco and Tunisia to find locations for filming, and Watts even did some directing for the third unit.
In a 2011 interview, Watts said, "We were actually under much pressure from 20th Century Fox. The studio was having financial problems and didn’t really believe in the movie.
At the time, Star Wars was the only Fox film being made, so all their attention was on us. George Lucas felt the pressure, and so did all of us."
The film became a huge success. After that, Robert Watts was promoted to associate producer for The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — he even suggested his half-brother, Jeremy Bulloch, to play Boba Fett. Later, he became co-producer for Return of the Jedi (1983).
Watts was born on May 23, 1938 in London. His grandfather, Walter Meade, was a screenwriter. He used to work on the war film Scott of the Antarctic (1948), starring John Mills.
After serving two years in Nigeria, Watts entered the film industry as a runner on the comedy A French Mistress (1960) and spent two years as a production manager at Shepperton Studios.
Further, he worked as a second assistant director for films like John Schlesinger’s Darling (1965), Roman Polanski’s Repulsion (1965), The Man in the Middle (1964), and Thunderball (1965).
He also worked as a location manager on You Only Live Twice (1967) and a production manager on major films like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), El Condor (1970), Inspector Clouseau (1968), and Papillon (1973).
Robert Watts was the production manager of The Wrath of God (1972), which was Rita Hayworth’s last film.
It was during this time that he first came in contact with the producer Gary Kurtz, who was preparing American Graffiti with George Lucas. Three years later, Kurtz reached out to Watts about working on Star Wars.
Watts shared that when he began working on Star Wars in September 1976, George Lucas was personally funding the team because 20th Century Fox hadn’t yet approved the project. They didn't officially greenlight the movie until January.
Set decorator Roger Christian, the winner of an Oscar for Star Wars, wrote on Facebook that Watts "was one of the five people who really supported George and our small art department to make Star Wars happen."
Watts’ other work includes Return to Oz (1985, produced by Lucas), Alive (1993, directed by Frank Marshall), The Other Side of Midnight (1977), and On Deadly Ground (1994, starring Steven Seagal).
He is survived by his children, Barney, Simon, and Liddy, and his former wife, Julia.
