Colin Cantwell, the visual effects artist behind many of the iconic spacecraft in the original movie, has died at the age of 90.
In an Sunday, Cantwell's partner, Sierra Dall, said he died on Saturday at his home in Colorado.
"Colin Cantwell passed away peacefully at his home with me by his side. I will miss him greatly," she wrote.
Tributes flooded in from fans and celebrities, including "Curb Your Enthusiasm" director David Mandel, who from his own collection on Twitter.
Cantwell was best known for designing and constructing prototypes of the X-Wing, Star Destroyer, TIE Fighter, Death Star and other ships for "Star Wars: A New Hope," the first movie in the blockbuster sci-fi franchise.
According to , he designed the spaceships used in the 1977 movie two years earlier, building the models and photographing them when they were completed.
Cantwell's website also noted that he was UCLA's first animation graduate, after persuading the university to add an animation major.
Before Hollywood came calling he fulfilled his childhood passion for space by working at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, creating educational programs on recent developments in space exploration.
While at NASA he fed CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite updates about the astronauts' progress during the 1969 moon landing, which .
Away from the "Star Wars" franchise, Cantwell's big-screen contributions include special photographic effects for "2001: A Space Odyssey," technical dialogue for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and computer graphics design consultant for "WarGames."
In 2014, an auction of some of his personal "Star Wars" artifacts, including some spacecraft designs, raised more than US$118,000, reported.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris on Monday made their first joint appearance since her U.S. selection loss when they observed Veterans Day together by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
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Israel’s new foreign minister said that there has been 'certain progress' in efforts to end the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams is seeking to move up the start of his trial on corruption and bribery charges so he can focus on his campaign for reelection this spring.
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