Designed `Star Wars' space fleet, Death Star

Concept artist, computer engineer was 90

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), died Saturday at his home in Colorado Springs. He was 90.

The cause was dementia, said Sierra Dall, his partner of 24 years.

A veteran of NASA'S Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he created educational programs, 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).

He was best known for his work on “Star Wars” (1977), when he created the first designs for many of the movie's most memorable ships, helping to define the look of the blockbuster franchise even though he worked on only its first instalment.

“He was a fairly quiet, very nice and extremely talented man,” said Craig Miller, a former director of fan relations for Lucasfilm.

When Lucas hired Cantwell in late 1974, the director was still negotiating financing with 20th Century Fox, working

HE WAS A FAIRLY QUIET, VERY NICE AND EXTREMELY TALENTED MAN.

out concepts like the Force and overhauling a screenplay that was tentatively titled “Adventures of the Starkiller, Ep. 1: The Star Wars.” The script mentioned a number of spacecraft, but offered only vague descriptions of what they looked like and how they moved.

Cantwell was tasked with filling in the details, instructed by Lucas to make the ships look realistic but with “a comic book nobility,” according to Brian Jay Jones's book “George Lucas: A Life.” He exchanged drawings with the director before landing on final sketches that he used to make his models.

Whether the spacecraft were shown individually or en masse, Cantwell wanted them to be immediately recognizable, and to generate a sense of nervousness or excitement depending on their place in Lucas's science fiction saga.