Colin James Cantwell (April 3, 1932 – May 21, 2022) was an American concept artist and director known for his work on films like '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' and ''

WarGames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American science fiction techno-thriller film written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes and directed by John Badham. The film, which stars Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, and Ally Sheedy, foll ...

'', but primarily for doing initial concept designs and models for a number of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...

'' vehicles, most notably the X-wing fighter, the

TIE fighter The Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighter is a series of fictional starfighters featured in the ''Star Wars'' universe. TIE fighters are depicted as fast, agile, yet fragile starfighters produced by Sienar Fleet Systems for the Galactic Empire and b ...

, and the

Death Star The Death Star is a fictional space station and superweapon featured in the ''Star Wars'' space-opera franchise. Constructed by the autocratic Galactic Empire, the Death Star is capable of annihilating entire planets into rubble, and serves to e ...

, that were then further developed by people like

Ralph McQuarrie Ralph Angus McQuarrie (; June 13, 1929 – March 3, 2012) was an American conceptual designer and illustrator. His career included work on the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, the original '' Battlestar Galactica'' television series, the film '' ...

and

Joe Johnston Joseph Eggleston Johnston II (born May 13, 1950) is an American film director, producer, writer, and visual effects artist. He is best known for directing effects-driven films, including '' Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' (1989), '' Jumanji'' (19 ...

Career

While employed by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

, Cantwell was in the CBS News studio for the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, a ...

moon landing A Moon landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959. The United S ...

, assisting

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

as he narrated the landing. In the early seventies, Cantwell was employed by the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center to produce effects for, and direct, an early multimedia presentation titled '' Voyage to the Outer Planets'' (1973) that would show a spacecraft touring the outer planets of the solar system. While working on visual effects for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' with

Douglas Trumbull Douglas Hunt Trumbull (; April 8, 1942 – February 7, 2022) was an American film director and innovative visual effects supervisor. He pioneered methods in special effects and created scenes for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Close Encounters ...

, Cantwell persuaded

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

"'not to start the movie with a 20-minute conference table discussion.' It was Cantwell who created the dramatic space opening that followed the dawn of man and bone thrown into the air", and who suggested the use of Also sprach Zarathustra for the opening theme music. In 1974 Cantwell was hired to work on the original ''

'' film. Based on Lucas' directions he created the original designs and concept models for a number of vehicles including the X-wing fighter, the Y-wing, the

, the

Star Destroyer Star Destroyers are capital ships in the fictional ''Star Wars'' universe. Star Destroyers were produced by Kuat Drive Yards, later Kuat-Entralla Engineering, and serve as "the Ship of the line, signature vessel of the fleet" for the Galactic Repub ...

, the

, the Tantive IV (which was originally intended to be the

Millennium Falcon The ''Millennium Falcon'' is a fictional starship in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Designed by Joe Johnston for the movie ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars'' (1977), it has subsequently appeared in ''The Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978), ''The Em ...

), the landspeeder and the sandcrawler. Cantwell's original designs were further developed by concept artists like

and

. One of Cantwell's concept models was used in the film, with Luke playing with it as he talks to

C-3PO C-3PO () or See-Threepio is a humanoid robot character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise who appears in the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Built by Anakin Skywalker, was designed as a protocol droid intended to a ...

. One of Cantwell's original Star Destroyer designs was further developed for the 2018 '' Solo: A Star Wars Story'' but ultimately unused although

Hot Wheels Hot Wheels is an American brand of scale model cars introduced by American toymaker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1997, when Mattel bought Tyco Toys, then owner of Matchbox. Many automobile manufacturers ha ...

did release a toy version. Cantwell consulted with Hewlett-Packard on the development of their Hewlett-Packard 9845C desktop computers which were designed for graphical tasks, also creating a demo package to show off its capabilities. He then used HP 9845C desktop computers to design and create the computer graphics for the large displays in the

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

set on the 1983 ''

'' film. In 2014, a number of items were auctioned from Cantwell's collection for a total of $118,732.50. Cantwell wrote a science fiction novel, ''CoreFires'', and a sequel, ''CoreFires2''; they were published in 2016 and 2018, respectively.

Personal life

Colin James Cantwell was born on April 3, 1932, in San Francisco. He earned a bachelor's degree in applied arts from the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

in 1957. One of his uncles,

Robert Cantwell Robert Emmett Cantwell (January 31, 1908 – December 8, 1978), known as Robert Cantwell, was a novelist and critic. His first novel, ''Laugh and Lie Down'' (1931) is an early example, twenty years before Jack Kerouac, of the American classic gen ...

, was a critic and author. Cantwell died at his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado on May 21, 2022, aged 90. His partner, Sierra Dall, had reported that Cantwell had been afflicted with Alzheimer's disease in the final years of his life.

Awards

In 1984, Cantwell was nominated at the 37th British Academy Film Awards for Best Special Visual Effects for his work on ''

''. ''

Return of the Jedi ''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who w ...

'' won the award.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cantwell, Colin 1932 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists American illustrators American science fiction writers Artists from Colorado Springs, Colorado Artists from San Francisco Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Deaths from dementia in Colorado Science fiction artists University of California, Los Angeles alumni Writers from San Francisco