Sad news today.
Professor Tony Dyson, who built the original R2-D2 droid for the Star Wars franchise, has died at his home in Malta.
Originally from Britain, Prof Dyson (68) was found dead by police on Thursday after a call from a worried neighbour.
The death is believed to be of natural causes but a post mortem examination is being carried out to determine the cause of his death.
Prof Dyson was commissioned to build eight different models of the lovable droid and described his time working on them as the "most exciting time" of his career.
During his life, Prof Dyson also worked on other film projects such as Superman II, Moonraker and Dragon Slayer and even earned an Emmy nomination for his film effects supervision.
He also worked and created robots for some of the largest technology companies in the world including Sony, Phillips and Toshiba.
