Gene Winfield, a pioneering legend in the hot-rod world who created custom cars for numerous films and TV shows including Blade Runner, the original Star Trek series, RoboCop, Get Smart! and many others, has died. He was 97.
He died March 4, according to his obit on Legacy.com. His Winfield Custom Shop had posted on Instagram late last month that he had cancer.
Winfield’s Galileo shuttlecraft from the original 1960s ‘Star Trek’ series
Everett Collection
Winfield was known as “The King of Kustoms,” and his most famous creations include the iconic Galileo shuttlecraft and the Jupiter 8 for Star Trek — the latter seen in the episode “Bread and Circuses” — and the “spinners” for Blade Runner, which was nominated for the Special Effects Oscar. He also built the Catmobile for TV’s Batman and gadget cars for Get Smart! and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. during the Bond-fueled spy craze of the 1960s.
His futuristic vehicles are seen in Back to the Future II, the original RoboCop, The Last Starfighter, Woody Allen’s Sleeper and others. Winfield’s cars also are seen in the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force, Bewitched, Ironside, TV’s Mission: Impossible and more.
Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in a Winfield-designed car in ‘Sleeper’ (1973)
Everett Collection
Winfield’s work was featured in the first in a mid-2010s DVD series called The King of Kustoms, and he is the subject of David Grant’s 2008 book The Legendary Custom Cars and Hot Rods of Gene Winfield.
Born on June 16, 1927, in Springfield, MO, Winfield moved with his family as a toddler to the Central California town of Modesto, where he grew up. By age 10, he was working on cars, beginning a lifelong gearhead obsession that led to auto racing and building by the early ’50s, after a stint in the Army.
Often specializing in custom paint, he won accolades and many awards in the hot-rod community throughout his life and is a member of several halls of fame. He received the National Hot Rod Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and also worked with Detroit automakers.
