Robert Watts, Producer of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Has Died at 86

Robert Watts, the British film producer who helped get both Star Wars and Indiana Jones into theaters, has died at the age of 86. His passing was announced in part by Watts’ friend, Star Wars set designer Roger Chrisitan, who posted the following: “I’ve just heard news that my dear friend Robert Watts has passed. Robert was one of the 5 people who really stood by George and our tiny art department to get Star Wars made. Robert was very spiritual and we became more than friends. I interviewed him for my documentary Galaxy built on hope and valued greatly his insight. I will miss him #star wars”.

Watts became connected with Star Wars creator George Lucas after working as a production supervisor for producer Gary Kurtz. Watts advanced through the ranks of Lucasfilm after A New Hope was released; by the time The Empire Strikes Back came out (1981), he was an associate producer on the film, and went on to be co-producer of Return of the Jedi (1983). He even got his family into the act: Watts’s half-brother Jeremy Bulloch played Boba Fett in the original Star Wars Trilogy.

In between Star Wars projects, Watts acted as associate producer on the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and graduated to full producer of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and its sequel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Working on the Indiana Jones films helped Watts also form a relationship with director Steven Spielberg, who would open additional doors for Watts. That led to Watts producing Robert Zemeckis’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit; co-producing the animated sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West with Speilberg, and Frank Marshall’s survival biopic Alive. 

His final project was producing Steven Seagal’s only directorial attempt, On Deadly Ground (1994), which was knocked by critics and had a short run at the box office. Of course, with the kind of filmography that Robert Watts had amassed by the ’90s, his influence on cinema and pop culture will never be diminished. 

Robert Watts was born in London in 1938, just before WWII began. At age 20 he did his two years of National Service in the British military, then pursued a career in film, afterward. He got his break in the industry as a “runner” for the famous UK twin filmmaking duo the Boulting brothers, during a production of A French Mistress. Watts continued working as a runner, and then a production manager for a company that was based at Shepperton Studios, an English production house known for TV ads and documentaries. After working there Watts got a shot as a second assistant director on the 1964 film Man in the Middle. That film opened doors to him working as a production manager and location manager through the 1960s, with his credits including James Bond: Thunderball, and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was involved with a string of modest hit films (at best) throughout the 1970s – until he landed on the set of Star Wars, and would see his life and career change completely. 

R.I.P. Roger Watts – We offer condolences to his friends, colleagues, and family in their time of mourning.