Colin Cantwell, the creator of the concept that created the Star Wars spacecraft, has died at the age of 90.

Colin Cantwell, Concept Artist Who Created the Cult war of the galaxies The spacecraft, including the X-wing starfighter, the TIE fighter and the Death Star, died Saturday at home in Colorado, confirmed Sierra Dalma, its longtime partner. the hollywood reporter. He was 90 years old.

Cantwell film titles include special photographic effects 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Technical Dialogue for Third type of close encounters (1977) and Computer Graphic Design Consultant War games (1983). Still, he was best known for working with George Lucas. war of the galaxiesDesign and build prototypes for the X-wing, TIE Fighter, Star Destroyer and Death Star, among others.

Born in San Francisco in 1932, Cantwell was diagnosed with tuberculosis in his youth, as well as a partial retinal detachment. The cure, she said in a 2016 Reddit “Ask Me Anything” interview, was locked in a dark room with a heavy vest over her chest to prevent coughing fits. “I spent almost two years of my childhood in this dark room without moving. Suffice it to say, nothing else is going to slow me down after that! she said.

Cantwell graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in animation before being personally invited by Frank Lloyd Wright to attend the School of Architecture.

By the time he left for Hollywood, Cantwell already had an extraordinary career, as he described on his website. During the historic space race between the United States and Russia in the 1960s, Cantwell worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA, creating educational programs to help the public better understand how to fly.

This work culminated in Cantwell being a resource for the legendary Walter Cronkite during his 1969 landing on the historic moon. Live all over the world.

His love of architecture and his passion for space gave Cantwell the perfect combination to take serious steps in Tinseltown, working on various space projects, which was his original work. 2001: A Space Odyssey. “I worked closely with Stanley Kubrick and made sure he didn’t start the film with a 20-minute conference table,” he told the AMA. It was Cantwell who created the dramatic space that followed the human dawn and the bones being tossed into the air.

It was Cantwell’s work War games – Programming Hewlett Packard monitors to show dramatic scenes of bombs on NORAD screens when the WOPR (War Operation Plan Response) computer nearly drops a nuke, leading to programming software that converts the real Hewlett Packard in multiple colors to 5,000 colors.

In addition to his films, Cantwell has written two science fiction novels, core fires 1 s core fires 2.

Cantwell stayed with Sierra Dali, his partner of 24 years.