Richard Miller

Richard Miller (December 6, 1942–December 8, 2022) was a jeweler, sculptor, and teacher at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). While he was teaching at a local university and pursuing his art career, his friend Lorne Peterson recruited him for the 1983 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, on which Miller worked as a jeweler. He continued his career at ILM and contributed to each of the Star Wars prequel trilogy films—as a concept sculptor for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace and as a model maker for Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
==Biography==
===Before Star Wars===
Richard Miller, who was born on December 6, 1942, was a veteran sculptor at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). While he was working as a jeweler and sculptor and as an art teacher at a local university, he was recruited by his friend, ILM model-maker Lorne Peterson, to become a jeweler on the 1983 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Peterson had viewed several of Miller's bronze sculptures and realized their style was similar to costume designer Nilo Rodis-Jamero's concepts for Leia Organa's dancing-girl costume.Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy
===Return of the Jedi===
To craft the dancing-girl costume, Miller utilized a wax casting technique used in bronze sculpting. He initially created the pieces using soft wax around bendable armature wire, placed them in an ice chest, and then actress Carrie Fisher wore them against her skin so that her body heat would warm and soften the wax as the armature was shaped to fit her. Miller would then use the fitted wax pieces to mold and cast the costume components in a dense urethane rubber that was then painted gold. On the 2011 Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga, he described his process and demonstrated the flexibility of the structural pieces in the "Slave Leia costume" featurette.Star Wars: The Complete Saga He also created Emperor Palpatine's cloak clasp, which was first sculpted and cast in resin and then finished with a high-gloss black lacquer.
===The prequel trilogy===
Miller was one of the concept sculptors on the 1999 prequel trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. As part of the ILM unit, he was a model maker for the 2002 prequel film, Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, and for the final prequel in 2005, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Between December 2003 and October 2004, he worked with artist and concept design supervisor Erik Tiemens of Skywalker Ranch to create a bas-relief sculpture from Tiemens' drawings. The finished frieze appears in Palpatine's office in Revenge of the Sith.
==Filmography==
Year	Title	Contribution(s)
1983	 	Jeweler
1999	 	Concept Sculptor
2002	 	Model Maker
2005	 	Model Maker
==Sources==
*
*The Art of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
*
*
*The Art of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
*
*Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars
*
*
*
*Star Wars: The Complete Saga
*The Making of Return of the Jedi
*Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy
*The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I–III, 1999–2005
==Notes and references==
==External links==
*
*
Category:Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace production staff
Category:Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi production staff