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.
In the "Slave Leia costume" featurette on the 2011 Blu-ray set Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Richard Miller described his work on the costume.
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. 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.
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.
- 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