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Richard Marquand (April 22nd 1938 – 4 September 1987) was a Welsh film director best known for directing the 1983 blockbuster Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi. He also directed the critically acclaimed 1981 drama film Eye of the Needle. James Marquand is his son. Marquand was born in Llanishen, Cardiff, the younger brother of the political writer David Marquand and the son of Rachel E. (née Rees) and Hilary Marquand, who was a Labour member of Parliament. Richard Marquand was educated at Emanuel School, the Université d'Aix-Marseille in Marseille, France and King's College,... MORE

Richard Marquand (April 22nd 1938 – 4 September 1987) was a Welsh film director best known for directing the 1983 blockbuster Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi. He also directed the critically acclaimed 1981 drama film Eye of the Needle. James Marquand is his son. Marquand was born in Llanishen, Cardiff, the younger brother of the political writer David Marquand and the son of Rachel E. (née Rees) and Hilary Marquand, who was a Labour member of Parliament. Richard Marquand was educated at Emanuel School, the Université d'Aix-Marseille in Marseille, France and King's College, Cambridge. By the late 1960s, Marquand had begun a career writing and directing television documentaries for the BBC, where he worked on projects such as the 1972 series Search for the Nile and an edition of One Pair of Eyes (1968), about the novelist Margaret Drabble who had been a friend of his at Cambridge. In 1979, Marquand incorporated many of his finely-honed documentary techniques in his dramatized TV movie, The Birth of the Beatles. On the strength of his direction of the 1981 feature, Eye of the Needle, Marquand was hired by producer George Lucas to direct Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. In LESS