On August 11, 1973, the nostalgic teenage coming-of-age
movie American Graffiti, directed and co-written by George
Lucas, opened in theaters across the U.S.

Set in California in the summer of 1962, American Graffiti
was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best
Director and Best Picture, and helped well as the former
child actor and future Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron
Howard.

The film’s success enabled Lucas to get his next movie
made, the mega-hit Star Wars (1977).

George Lucas during the filming of the movie.  

Richard Dreyfuss (77)

Harrison Ford (83)

Ron Howard (71)

On July 6, 1994, the movie Forrest Gump, a comedy-drama film,
opened in theaters. A huge box-office success, the film stars
Tom Hanks in the title role of Forrest, a good-hearted man with
a low I.Q. who winds up at the center of key cultural and historical
events of the second half of the 20th century.

Forrest Gump was based on a 1986 novel of the same name by
Winston Groom who himself grew up in Alabama and served in
the Army during Vietnam.