Robert Watts, ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ Producer,
Dies at 86
The London native helped George Lucas get through the
first film in the series, then worked on the next two and on the first three
Indiana Jones movies.
The Hollywood Reporter
By Mike Barnes
October 1, 2024
Robert Watts, the British producer and production manager
who collaborated with George Lucas on the first three Star Wars films and the
first three Indiana Jones movies, has died. He was 86.
Watts died Monday in his sleep at his home in East
Sussex, England, his rep, Julian Owen at Alliance Agents, told The Hollywood
Reporter. “We were with him for a decade taking him to conventions all over the
world, where he could connect with fans and talk about his career,” Owen said.
Watts also worked alongside Indiana Jones director Steven
Spielberg on the Spielberg-produced Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and An
American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991).
For the extremely challenging first Star Wars film, Watts
served as production supervisor under production designer John Barry, and the
two traveled to Morocco and Tunisia to scout locations. He then did some
third-unit directing.
“We were under a great deal of pressure from 20th Century
Fox,” Watts recalled in a 2011 interview. “They were under great financial
problems themselves and did not believe in the movie. At the time, we were the
only Fox movie then shooting anywhere in the world. Their eyes were focused on
us, and George was under a great deal of pressure. As a result so were we all.”
The film became an overwhelming success, of course. Watts
then graduated to associate producer on The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — he
recommended that his half-brother Jeremy Bulloch portray Boba Fett in that —
and was co-producer on Return of the Jedi (1983).
Watts was born in London on May 23, 1938. His grandfather
Walter Meade was a screenwriter whose credits included the war film Scott of
the Antarctic (1948), starring John Mills.
After two years of national service in Nigeria, Watts got
into the movie business as a runner on the comedy A French Mistress (1960),
then spent two years as a production manager at Shepperton Studios.
He was a second assistant director on The Man in the
Middle (1964), Roman Polanski’s Repulsion (1965), John Schlesinger’s Darling
(1965) and Terence Young’s Thunderball (1965); a location manager on Lewis
Gilbert’s You Only Live Twice (1967); and a production manager on Bud Yorkin’s
Inspector Clouseau (1968), Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), John
Guillermin’s El Condor (1970) and Franklin J. Schaffner’s Papillon (1973).
Watts was also a production manager on The Wrath of God
(1972) — Rita Hayworth’s last film — when he first met producer Gary Kurtz, who
at the time was preparing American Graffiti with Lucas. Three years later,
Kurtz contacted him about working on Star Wars.
He said that when he started on the film in September
1976, Lucas “was paying for us all personally because Fox had still not
greenlighted the film, and they didn’t do that until January.”
On Facebook, set decorator Roger Christian, who won an
Oscar for his work on Star Wars, wrote that Watts “was one of the 5 people who
really stood by George and our tiny art department to get Star Wars made.”
Watts’s résumé also included The Other Side of Midnight
(1977), the Lucas-produced Return to Oz (1985), the Frank Marshall-directed
Alive (1993) and Steven Seagal’s On Deadly Ground (1994).
Survivors include his children, Barney, Simon and Liddy,
and his former wife, Julia.
WATTS, Robert (Robert Meade Watts)
Born: 5/23/1938, London, England, U.K.
Died: 9/30/2024, East Sussex, England, U.K.
Robert Watts’ westerns – producer, production manager:
El Condor – 1970 [production manager]
The Wrath of God – 1972 [production manager]
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West – 1991 [producer]
