At the request of George Lucas, Cantwell developed various prototypes of the Death Star, X-Wings and the Millennium Falcon. He also helped director Stanley Kubrick with his film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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“He brought a lot of joy to the world with his art,” said his cousin Shannon Denton, who said he was “an incredibly nice man and smart the way people dream.”
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Colin Cantwell was born in Colorado, USA in 1932. He studied animation as well as architecture and was able to combine his two interests. In the 1960s, he worked for NASA and came to the 2001 film: A Space Odyssey, which became cult over time.
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Model X Cloud
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Millennium Falcon
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Model X Cloud
Photo: Profimedia.cz
He was then contacted by director George Lucas to create spaceships for the first part of Star Wars.
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“The ship was coming like one huge arrow, it kept going and going,” he recalled the beginning of Star Wars in an interview. According to him, the film was “strangely hilarious”, it was serious and “at the same time a great parody”.
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Colin Cantwell also collaborated with Steven Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and wrote two sci-fi books.
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