Ralph Angus McQuarrie was an American conceptual designer and illustrator, who worked on the concept and design for the original Star Wars trilogy, the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Cocoon, for which he won an Academy Award.
Several of his unused designs from the original trilogy were utilized for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, including the characters Garazeb Orrelios and Chopper, based on his original designs for Chewbacca and R2-D2, respectively.
McQuarrie died at the age of 82 on March 3, 2012, in his Berkeley, California home, from complications of Parkinson's disease.