Short answers, pulled from the story.
Richard Marquand is best known for directing Return of the Jedi, released in 1983, the final film in the original Star Wars trilogy. The film earned him a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1984.
George Lucas hired Marquand on the strength of his 1981 drama Eye of the Needle. Lucas cited Marquand's skill with actors and the film's energy and suspense as the deciding factors.
Richard Marquand was born on the 22nd of September 1937 in Llanishen, Cardiff, Wales. His father, Hilary Marquand, was a Labour MP and served as Minister of Health under Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
Marquand suffered a stroke at his home in Penshurst on the 30th of August 1987 and died five days later at Kent and Sussex Hospital in Royal Tunbridge Wells. He was 49 years old.
Marquand directed the 1981 drama Eye of the Needle, the 1985 courtroom thriller Jagged Edge starring Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close, and Hearts of Fire, which was released posthumously in 1987.
Marquand wrote a screenplay in the late 1970s about a young orphan girl in Victorian Mid Wales who enlists two local men to avenge her father's death. He declined a Hollywood offer to produce it because producers insisted the story be relocated to the Rocky Mountains in the United States.