Colin Cantwell was a concept artist whose designs for movies included the Death Star, X-wing fighter, and TIE fighter for “Star Wars.”
- Died: May 21, 2022 (Who else died on May 21?)
- Details of death: Died at his home in Colorado at the age of 90.
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Futuristic designs
Cantwell didn’t begin his career in Hollywood. First, he became the first animation major to graduate from UCLA and received a personal invitation from Frank Lloyd Wright to study architecture at Taliesin. He then worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and later for NASA, creating educational films. Cantwell was an assistant to Walter Cronkite in 1969 as he narrated the Moon landing for TV. His entry to movies came with the groundbreaking “2001: A Space Odyssey,” for which he created the opening sequence. After bringing George Lucas’ ideas to life for “Star Wars,” Cantwell worked on graphics for “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.” He designed the NORAD computer monitors for “War Games,” which inspired Hewlett Packard to hire him to create their first color monitors for the general public. Cantwell was also an author of science fiction novels.
Cantwell on designing the X-wing fighter
“It had to be ultracool and different from all the other associations with Aircraft etc. In other words it had to be Alien and fit in with the rest of the story. A dart being thrown at a target in a British pub gave me the original concept and then it went forward from there.” —from a 2016 Reddit AMA
Tributes to Colin Cantwell
Full obituary: The Hollywood Reporter
