Colin Cantwell, a concept artist, animator and computer engineer who helped bring the Star Wars universe to life, designing and building prototypes for a fleet of epic spacecraft – from the menacing TIE fighter to the elegant, dart-shaped X-wing – and giving the Death Star its alien look and fatal flaw (a trench), has died aged 90.
A veteran of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he created educational programmes to teach the public about early space launches, Cantwell went on to work with directors including Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, developing miniatures, computer graphics and other visual effects for movies including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979).
