Colin Cantwell, the concept artist behind several iconic Star Wars spacecraft, has died.

Cantwell died in his home in Colorado on May 21 and his death was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by his partner of 24 years, Sierra Dall. He was 90.

Cantwell designed many iconic ships that appeared throughout the universe of George Lucas' Star Wars, including the TIE fighter, Death Star, X-wing Starfighter, and Star Destroyer, among others. While Star Wars is perhaps the home of his best-known work, Cantwell's work has appeared in many other sci-fi classics. His other film credits include the special photographic effects for 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey, technical dialogue for 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and computer graphics for 1983's WarGames.

Cantwell was born in San Francisco in 1932 and, according to the biography on his official website, his interest in space started early. He would go on to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he suggested the university add an animation major. Cantwell would go on to become UCLA's first animation graduate.

Following his graduation, Cantwell was personally invited to attend the School of Architecture by famous American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. However, before Cantwell made the move to Hollywood, he worked for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the space race between the United States and Russia in the 1960s. In fact, it was Cantwell who assisted legendary reporter Walter Cronkite during his 1969 moon landing broadcast by feeding him updates from the communications line between NASA and the astronauts.

With a combined interest in both architecture and space, Cantwell would go on to design several iconic scenes in many science fiction films. His work on 2001: A Space Odyssey included the designs of the space scenes, particularly the film's dramatic opening sequence. In a 2016 AMA, Cantwell revealed that he convinced director Stanley Kubrik not to open the film with a "20-minute conference table discussion."

Cantwell would go on to work as a concept artist on Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, where he designed spacecraft like the X-Wing, the Y-Wing/Skyhopper, TIE/LN Fighter, the Death Star, Stardestroyers and Imperial Cruisers, the Landspeeder and the Sandcrawler. Cantwell also designed an early iteration of the Millennium Falcon.

Cantwell also wrote two science fiction novels, CoreFires 1 and CoreFires 2. He is survived by his partner, Sierra Dall.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter