Colin Cantwell, the designer of the Death Star space station from the Star Wars film series, has died. That made The Hollywood Reporter announced on Sunday. Cantwell, who was also behind the design of several spaceships from the films, has turned 90.
In addition to the Death Star, Cantwell also designed the X-wing, the TIE fighter and the Star Destroyer for the original Star Wars films. He also contributed to famous films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
Cantwell was born in San Francisco in 1932. During a question-and-answer session on website Reddit in 2016, he shared that as a child he suffered from tuberculosis and a retinal detachment. As a result, he spent two years in a dark room wearing a weighted vest to stop the coughing. ,,After that, nothing could stop me”, he said of that experience.
Love for architecture and space travel
He graduated in animation from the University of California at Los Angeles and was subsequently invited by Frank Lloyd Wright to continue his studies at his School of Architecture. Before making the move to Hollywood, Cantwell worked for the American space agency NASA, for which he designed educational programs. His love for both architecture and space travel proved to be a perfect combination for his later work in the film industry.
Cantwell suffered from Alzheimer’s in the last few years before his death, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
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