Howard Kazanjian

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Howard Kazanjian is nowhere in the credits of The Empire Strikes Back. He took over that production partway through, after original producer Gary Kurtz departed, yet received no screen credit for it. Kazanjian was born on the 26th of July 1942. He is far better known for two credited roles: executive producer on Raiders of the Lost Ark and producer on Return of the Jedi. He was also one of Lucasfilm, Ltd.'s originating executives, serving as its vice president for roughly eight years, from 1977 to 1984. In 2021 he published a 340-page memoir, Howard Kazanjian: A Producer's Life, compiled with Star Wars historian J.W. Rinzler. What was it like to run a movie without his name on it? And how did a young film student end up working behind the scenes of two of Hollywood's biggest franchises?

• 2. USC And Early Credits

  ›

  Kazanjian was born in Los Angeles County, California, into a family of Armenian descent. His father was born in Tigranakert, also called Diyarbakır, while his mother was born in Pasadena. Kazanjian graduated from the University of Southern California, where he first met a young George Lucas. The two became fraternity brothers in Delta Kappa Alpha and remained close, long-standing friends. Lucas and Kazanjian ran with a group of filmmakers nicknamed The Dirty Dozen, known throughout both the Hollywood system and the university circuit. During those college years, both men met their future wives, and the two couples often went on double dates.

  On Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot, Kazanjian worked as first assistant director. He had earlier served as second assistant director on Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. He also worked with director Robert Wise on his production of The Hindenburg. Kazanjian eventually moved into producing rather than directing. He later explained the shift plainly: "The films offered to me I don't want to direct. The films I want to direct are not offered." That choice pointed him toward Lucasfilm, where a very different kind of job was waiting.

• 3. Running The Studio

  ›

  As Lucasfilm's Vice President of Production, Kazanjian oversaw the studio's operations, handling both strategic decisions and everyday, practical matters. His tenure ran through the years immediately following the 1977 release of Star Wars, continuing until around 1984 or 1985. That authority would soon push him into decisions requiring unusual creative cover, including one production shot under a fake name.

• 4. The Blue Harvest Ruse

  ›

  For Return of the Jedi, Kazanjian proposed shooting the production under a fake name: Blue Harvest. The disguise was meant to stop suppliers from price-gouging the crew once they realized which film they were actually working on. Blue Harvest was passed off as a horror movie, complete with its own tagline, "horror beyond imagination." Crew members even wore hats and T-shirts printed with the fake title, reinforcing the ruse. That same instinct for creative problem-solving would resurface during casting, in a battle over who should play Indiana Jones.

• 5. Making Indiana Jones

  ›

  During casting for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Kazanjian campaigned hard for Harrison Ford to play Indiana Jones. He pushed so forcefully that he nearly lost his job over it. The character was originally written as a smoker and a drinker, but Kazanjian convinced George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to cut both traits.

  One of the film's most memorable images also traces back to Kazanjian. He proposed the scene in which light passing through the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra pinpoints where the Well of the Souls lies. The idea came from the golden statues of Ramesses II at the Abu Simbel temples in Egypt. That temple was built so sunlight would reach its inner sanctuary and light up the statues only once a year.

  Ford's casting settled one question. Whether he would return for a third Star Wars film was a separate question. That question would land squarely on Kazanjian's desk during pre-production of Return of the Jedi.

• 6. Bringing Solo Home

  ›

  Kazanjian later described his role in his own words. "I played a very important part in bringing Harrison back for Return of the Jedi," he said. "Harrison, unlike Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, signed only a two picture contract. That is why he was frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back."

  Kazanjian recalled proposing the idea to George Lucas directly. "I distinctly remember him saying that Harrison would never return," he said. "I said what if I convinced him to return. George simply replied that we would then write him in to Jedi."

  The negotiation itself ran through the Gersh Agency. "I had just recently negotiated his deal for Raiders of the Lost Ark with Phil Gersh of the Gersh Agency," Kazanjian said. "I called Phil, who said he would speak with Harrison. When I called back again, Phil was on vacation. David, his son, took the call, and we negotiated Harrison's deal."

  Weeks later, the fallout arrived. "When Phil returned to the office several weeks later, he called me back and said I had taken advantage of his son in the negotiations," Kazanjian recalled. "I had not. But agents are agents."

  Two days before Return of the Jedi's final scene was shot, Kazanjian made one more suggestion. The scene had been planned to show only the Force ghosts of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. Kazanjian proposed adding a third: the ghost of Anakin Skywalker. Decades later, Kazanjian would trade movie sets for the page, turning his attention to writing about the American West.

• 7. Books, Faith, And Business

  ›

  Kazanjian has co-written several books with Chris Enss, starting in 2004 with two biographies of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. The first was The Cowboy and the Senorita: A Biography of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. The second was Happy Trails: A Pictorial Celebration of the Lives of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

  In 2006, the pair published The Young Duke: The Early Life of John Wayne. In 2009, they released Thunder over the Prairie: The True Story of a Murder and a Manhunt by the Greatest Posse of All Time.

  Since 1998, Kazanjian has served as co-chairman and 50 percent shareholder of Tricor Entertainment, Inc., an independent production company. Tricor owns and operates a theater chain of more than 19,000 seats across Southeast Asia, along with a film distribution company. In 2023, Kazanjian attended book signing events hosted by the Armenian Film Society.

• 8. Family And Honors

  ›

  Kazanjian lives in San Marino, California, with his wife Carol, whose maiden name was Eskijian, and their three children, Peter, Noah, and Andrew. As of 2010, Kazanjian and George Lucas remain close friends.

  In 1982, Kazanjian won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special, for The Making of Raiders of the Lost Ark. That same year, he also won an Inkpot Award. In 2009, he received the Briner Impact Award.

  On the 8th of June 2009, Kazanjian was deputized as an Honorary Marshal of Dodge City, Kansas. For one day, the film producer carried a badge in a frontier town instead of a film set.