Stephen J. Sansweet

Stephen J. Sansweet (born June 14, 1945) is the chairman and president of Rancho Obi-Wan, a nonprofit museum that houses the world's largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia.^[2] Prior to his retirement in April, 2011, he was Director of Content Management and head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm for 15 years, and remains Fan Relations Advisor for the company.^[3] He is author or co-author of eighteen books, sixteen of them about Star Wars. After Sansweet relocated to Northern California to be closer to his new office at Skywalker Ranch, he bought a former chicken ranch and refurbished its barns to house his collection. The property was renamed Rancho Obi-Wan.^[4]

Biography

After a long and successful career in journalism, Stephen J. Sansweet made a leap of faith in 1996 and followed his passion to become Director of Specialty Marketing at Lucasfilm Ltd. His title later changed to Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations. Sansweet turned his love of the Star Wars saga into a second career, acting as Lucasfilm's liaison to fans worldwide, and their liaison to the company. He did presentations at well over 100 conventions in the U.S. and many more internationally from the U.K., France, Spain, and Germany, to Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Finland.

He appeared on more than 50 hours of Star Wars collectibles programming on QVC in the last half of the 1990s,^[5] and has amassed the world's largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia,^[6] housed in a 9,000-square-foot (840m square) converted chicken barn in Sonoma County, California. Not abandoning his love of writing, Sansweet has eighteen books to his credit, sixteen of them on Star Wars, including the 1.2-million-word Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia in 2008 and 2012's Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection.

It was announced on October 20, 2010, that Sansweet would be stepping down as Head of Fan Relations effective April 2011. He stated via press release: "Nearly 15 years ago I left my post as Los Angeles Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal to follow my bliss and take a 'one-year job' as Lucasfilm's Star Wars ambassador. Now it's time for another change and new challenges, while still maintaining an active role in the Star Wars fan community."^[7]

Works

Bibliography

Filmography

Sources

• Star Wars Insider 11
• "From the Publisher: The Force of Steve Sansweet" — Star Wars Insider 29
• The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
• starwars.com at Celebration III - Fans in Force: Inside Heart of an Empire on StarWars.com (original site is defunct)
• A Visit to Rancho Obi-Wan on StarWars.com (original site is defunct)
• "Blaster" — Star Wars Insider 110
• Steve Sansweet Talks 1,000 Collectibles on StarWars.com (original site is defunct)
• Steve Sansweet To Start A New Chapter on StarWars.com (original site is defunct)
• The Star Wars Show: Brand New Alien From Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Meet Babu Frik on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)
• "200 Reasons Why We Love Star Wars" — Star Wars Insider 200
• SWCA 2022: Meet Marietta Ivanova, the Cosplay Competition Winner Who Brought a Geonosian to Life on StarWars.com (backup link)

Notes and references

External links

• Steve Sansweet on StarWars.com (backup link)
• Official Rancho Obi-Wan on www.ranchoobiwan.org (backup link archived on September 3, 2011)
• Stephen J. Sansweet on Wikipedia
• Stephen J. Sansweet at the Internet Movie Database