A member of the Board of the Writers Guild, an adviser at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures  and chair of the Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles, has died at the age of 76.

Gloria Katz was better known for co-writing the script for George Lucas’s coming of age tale “American Graffiti.”

Katz, along with her writer-director husband Willard Huyck shared an Oscar nomination with Lucas for “American Graffiti.”  She also secretly doctored Lucas’ script for “Star Wars,” shaping Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia Organa into someone who could take command and not just be a beautiful women in need of saving.

Katz had suffered from ovarian cancer.