George Lucas' "Star Wars" franchise is one of the film industry's most iconic ones in living memory. It gave us a view of the Galaxy far, far, away, lightsabers, the Force, and even a sneak peek of what life could look like on other planets.
But one of the reasons why Star Wars was so popular was its spacecraft. Nobody couldn't call an X-Wing or a Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighter anything else because of their iconic look. No one ever forgets what the Death Star looks like (which looks like a small moon, as one wide-eyed teenager from Tatooine local puts it).
These iconic spacecraft owe their iconic look to concept artist Colin Cantwell, who died on May 21, 2022.
Cantwell's long-time partner of 24 years, Sierra Dall, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the concept artist died at his Colorado home.
Colin Cantwell was 90 years old when he passed.
Colin Cantwell Cause of Death
Dall was unable to provide information on Cantwell's official cause of death, but Rolling Stone reported that the concept artist was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease in recent years, per Dall's statement on Cantwell's official Instagram page.
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One of the more recent posts on Colin's Instagram page was a message from Dall saying that she is happy to spend 24 years with him, saying that she will try to preserve his legacy as best she can and that she has neglected her own business to support him.
"Sadly, my wonderful Colin is seriously ill and may not survive," Dall said before plugging Colin's website and signing off.
Colin Cantwell's Life and Achievements
Cantwell was born in San Francisco in 1932. During his childhood years, he plowed through books about space in his grade school library, showing his deep interest in space at an early age, per Cantwell's official website. He then attended the University of California, Los Angeles, in his later years, where he got a degree in animation. He also went to Frank Lloyd Wright's School of Architecture, where he created building designs that he hoped would impress the school's namesake, Frank Lloyd Wright, which he was able to.
Despite these challenges, Cantwell's interest in space never wavered. He even got work at NASA under its Jet Propulsion laboratory, creating educational programs on recent developments in space exploration for the general public.
He also worked with NASA in 1969 to feed updates on the first moon landing to journalist Walter Cronkite as he narrated the broadcast.
Cantwell's love for architecture and space combined when he began working on films, with Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey," being his first exposure to Hollywood. During production, he formed a friendly relationship with Kubrick, with Cantwell regularly visiting the director to discuss the film's progress "over turkey sandwiches."
In 1974, Cantwell was introduced by his friends to George Lucas, who invited him to work on Star Wars. During his time under Lucas, Cantwell designed the prototypes for several spacecraft in the franchise, including the X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Fighter, and the landspeeder Luke Skywalker uses to get to Mos Eisley, and the Galactic Empire's Death Star. He also worked on the design of the Tantive IV, Princess Leia's ship, which appeared in the opening sequence of "A New Hope."
According to Cantwell, the X-Wing's design concept came from "a dart being thrown at a target in a British pub." He also recalled that the Death Star wasn't supposed to have a trench in the first place, but the two halves of the space station's mold had shrunk at the point where they met across the middle," according to his reply in his ask me anything on Reddit.
"It would have taken a week of work just to fill and sand and re-fill this depression. So, to save me the labor, I went to George and suggested a trench. He liked the idea so much that it became one of the most iconic moments in the film!" Cantwell wrote.
May the Force be with You, Colin Cantwell, and thank you for your contribution to Star Wars.
