Colin Cantwell was a concept artist whose designs for movies included the Death Star, X-wing fighter, and TIE fighter for “Star Wars.”
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
Today we lost an absolute legend in the design world.
Colin Cantwell was instrumental in crafting the look and feel of classic Star Wars designs, and his work has served as the foundation of Star Wars design language ever since.
RIP Colin Cantwell pic.twitter.com/XQkdqj0KwI
— Scout (@ScoutTheTrooper) May 22, 2022
RIP Colin Cantwell. You might know him for creating the Death Star, the X-Wing, and many more designs in Star Wars. I had the opportunity to meet him once and he was very kind. Star Wars wouldn’t be what it is without him. pic.twitter.com/ddc84N7FZ2
— Trey ? SWCA (@TheTreyinator) May 22, 2022
Rest in peace Colin Cantwell, one my designer heroes. He worked on 2001, Star Wars, Close Encounters and Buck Rogers.
I will be working on a tribute I should have done earlier in the next few days.
My thoughts go out to his loved ones.https://t.co/EVfgXEkhre pic.twitter.com/2nnVdU138z
— The Spaceshipper ? (@TheSpaceshipper) May 22, 2022
RIP Colin Cantwell
He worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters, Wargames & designed the X-wing, TIE fighter, Star Destroyer & the Death Star for Star Wars.
Seen here on the left reunited with his most famous creation 40 years later. pic.twitter.com/Uqq4zq1cCC
— Tom Reagan’s Hat (@RufusTSuperfly) May 22, 2022
Full obituary: The Hollywood Reporter
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