Robert Kinoshita

Robert Kinoshita (February 24, 1914—) is an artist, art director, and set and production designer who worked in the American film and television industries from the 1950s through the early 1980s. He is best known as the designer of two of the most famous robots in science fiction: Robby the Robot from the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet" and the "B9 Environmental Control" robot from the 1960s TV series "Lost in Space" who was called "Robot."

Created at a cost of anywhere between $125,000 and $1,000,000 — depending on which source is quoted — and measuring around 7 feet tall, Robby the Robot was the result of the efforts of a number of individuals, although the final design as it appeared in "Forbidden Planet" is usually attributed to Kinoshita, who was head draftsman of the art department, and who produced the working drawings and blueprints for Robby’s construction under the supervision of art director A. Arnold “Buddy” Gillespie at MGM.

Around April 1965, Irwin Allen hired Robert Kinoshita as the art director for the "Lost in Space" series. Of the many tasks to befall Kinoshita, two of them were to come up with a robot (which he nicknamed "Blinky") and to redesign the pilot film's "Gemini XII" space ship into what would become the "Jupiter 2". This robot never had a real name--only the model number "B9." In the show he was referred to as "the robot" or called by the generic name, "Robot." He was brought to life by the combination of actor Bob May and voice actor Dick Tufeld.

Both of Kinoshita's famous robots appeared faceplate-to-faceplate in the "Lost in Space" episodes "War of the Robots" and "Condemned of Space", where Robby the Robot appeared as a guest robotoid and robot, respectively.