The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame announces that the 2006 inductees will be George Lucas and Anne McCaffrey. Posthumous inductees will be Frank Herbert and Frank Kelly Freas.

George Lucas is a writer, producer and special effects pioneer. He will be inducted for his work in building the genre through film. In addition to the Star Wars series, Lucas’s vision has come to life in his other films such as THX-1138 and the installments of the Indiana Jones series (with the fourth currently in production).

Anne McCaffrey was the first female author to win a Hugo Award for a work of fiction and was recently named the 22nd Grand Master by the by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Best known for the Dragonriders of Pern series, she has also penned more than 100 books including The Crystal Singer and The Ship who Sang.

Frank Kelly Freas career as an artist spanned more than fifty years. He painted hundreds of book covers through the latter half of the 20th Century. A ten-time Hugo-award winner (the first to do so), he also contributed illustrations for NASA campaigns, numerous advertising campaigns and album covers such as the work he did for Queen’s News of the World. He was also responsible for creating Mad Magazine covers for five years and his portraiture helped develop the personality of MAD Magazine’s iconic Alfred E. Neuman.

Frank Herbert was the author of the Dune series of books and nearly 35 others. His vision was realized on the big screen by David Lynch in the 1984 production of Dune and once again in the 2000 mini-series on the Sci-Fi Channel.

The ceremony will be emceed by Neil Gaiman on June 17. It will headline an Awards Weekend convention that will include the Locus Magazine Awards, emceed by Connie Willis, a Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and Locus Magazine co-sponsored party for authors, booksellers and publishers, SFM museum tours, panels, films, and the opening of the new Hall of Fame exhibit with artifacts from the 2006 inductees. Tickets for the induction ceremony will be available for purchase on April 5 for members and April 12 for the general public.

The Science Fiction Museum opened in Seattle, Washington in 2004 and this is the second year of its inductions. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame incorporates the previous Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame that was founded in Lawrence, Kansas by the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction and the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society in 1994. The original Hall of Fame honored only literary creators.

Updated March 17, 2006