Marilee Heyer

Marilee Heyer, a freelance artist, lent her talents as an illustrator to Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi without receiving official credit. Her conceptual drawings for Princess Leia Organa's hairstyles, the creations of Paul LeBlanc, have occasionally been credited to Heyer, while at other times, they've been incorrectly attributed. Additionally, she has stated that she contributed storyboards for certain scenes set on Tatooine.

Biography

Return of the Jedi

Marilee Heyer's 1981 illustration for Paul LeBlanc's hair design

Born on May 7, 1942, Marilee Heyer is an illustrator whose work included the 1983 original trilogy movie, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Although Heyer's name isn't in the film's credits, printed biographical information as early as 1996 mentions "Assistant storyboard artist for Return of the Jedi, 1982 [sic]" as a highlight of her career. At the time, she was a fashion illustrator at I. Magnin when she showed Lucasfilm Ltd. a collection of her science fiction drawings, hoping to secure freelance work on the final Star Wars installment. Later, she incorporated these drawings into her own book, The Forbidden Door. Her opportunity with Lucasfilm arose through a connection with Nilo Rodis-Jamero via a friend.

Heyer told the SFGATE news website in 2022 that she contributed to Return of the Jedi as a freelancer in August 1981. During her three weeks of work, she created storyboards for scenes taking place on Tatooine, notably featuring Princess Leia Organa in the sail barge sequence. She recalled being the only woman present and recounted an incident where director Richard Marquand, upon meeting her in a pitch meeting, asked her to fetch him coffee. George Lucas reviewed her sail barge storyboards but felt they needed more intensity and speed. Heyer mentioned collaborating with artist Joe Johnston and Rodis-Jamero, who was then balancing storyboarding with costume design responsibilities. Paul LeBlanc, one of the film's two hairdressers, conceived Leia's various hairstyles. However, lacking illustration skills, he relied on Heyer to transform his sketches and portrait photographs of Carrie Fisher into polished illustrations of his hair concepts. These illustrations included Leia's braided updo for the dancing-girl costume, her crown braids while wearing her rebel uniform on [Endor](/article/endor], and her flowing waves in the Ewok village. Heyer's artwork has been widely reproduced ever since.

During an episode of the Skywalking Though Neverland podcast, she cleared up a misinterpretation from the SFGATE article, stating that she did not design Leia's dancing-girl costume. The sketches shown in the article were done during her lunch break, inspired by conversations about the costume, and were not commissioned work. Because her agreement with Lucasfilm stipulated that all artwork created for the film became their property, she kept those two sketches since they were made during her personal time, unlike the storyboards and hairstyle artwork.

Concerns about credits

Following the film's release, Heyer was watching a PBS membership drive on television when she saw the 1983 artbook The Art of Return of the Jedi being offered as a pledge gift. Recognizing one of her illustrations, she pledged and received the book, only to find that her name was absent. She then contacted Kathy Wippert at Lucasfilm and a local lawyer to inform Ballantine Books, the publisher, of the error. Wippert assured her that the correction would be made in future editions, and Heyer confirmed that it was corrected in the 1994 reissue, which was renamed The Art of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

The website for the former Star Wars: The Magic of Myth museum exhibition, which ran from 1997 to 1999 at the National Air and Space Museum, featured a concept drawing of Leia's hairstyle for the dancing-girl costume. The website credited Heyer for the illustration and LeBlanc for the hair design.

Marilee Heyer still desires to receive proper credit for her Star Wars contributions, noting that while it has happened on occasion, her artwork continues to be republished without her name attached. Before SFGATE released their story, both Disney and Lucasfilm were contacted for comment, but neither responded.

Sources

  • The Art of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1994 reissue)
  • Jedi at 40 | Fashion Illustrator Marilee Heyer on Her Stunning Leia Concepts on StarWars.com (backup link)
  • This Week! in Star Wars Celebrating 40 Years of Return of the Jedi on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)
  • Star Wars: Best of 2023 on StarWars.com (backup link)

Note and references

External links

Appearances