Lucas honoured as film innovator

He was the cruel taskmaster who made Harrison Ford hang with snakes and rats, required Robert Duvall to shave his head and turned Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill into Pez dispensers.

George Lucas was presented with The American Film Institute’s annual lifetime achievement award last night. He was hailed as an innovator whose American Graffiti created a 1950s and early ’60s nostalgia craze and ushered in a new era of special effects with his Star Wars films.