Trivia

Worked in the art department at 20th Century Fox prior to being selected by Irwin Allen to become first-season art director for "Lost in Space".

During World War II, Kinoshita and his wife Lillian Matsuyama were interned at the Poston War Relocation Center in Arizona following the signing of Executive Order 9066.

Designer of the Jupiter 2 space ship, Robby the Robot, and The Robot B9 from 'Lost In Space', which he nicknamed "Blinky".

Trained at USC's School of Architecture.

The B9 robot fan club provided photos of Kinoshita on his 94th birthday as well as an interview. The B9 Robot Builders, has built more 100 full-size Robot replicas.

Kinoshita claimed his longevity was due to clean living and daily doses of apple cider vinegar.

Kinoshita is best known as the designer of three of the most famous robots in science fiction: Tobor from the 1954 film Tobor the Great as well as the 1957 television pilot Here Comes Tobor; Robby the Robot from the films Forbidden Planet in 1956 and The Invisible Boy in 1957; and Environmental Control Robot from the 1960s TV series Lost in Space, which was called "Robot".

Kinoshita graduated from USC ( University of Southern California) in 1940 with a bachelor's degree in architecture and design.

Reported costs for Robby the Robot's construction range from $100,000-$125,000. Measuring around 7 feet (213 cm) tall, Robby 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.

Kinoshita grew up in the Boyle Heights area. He attended Maryknoll Japanese Catholic School.

His career as a screenwriter started with Hundred Men and a Girl in 1937, while it took several years post war before he returned to the big screen in 1956 for the special effects tasks and built the famous Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet, although without credit.

After graduating from Roosevelt High School, he went to the University of Southern California to study architecture.

Among his credits are art direction on four other well-known TV shows: Highway Patrol (1955-1959), Bat Materson (1960-1961), Hawaii Five-O (1970-1971), and Kojak (1973-1974).

He was an American artist, art director, set and production designer who worked in the American film and television industries from the 1950s through the early 1980s.

Kinoshita was in the work pool of 20th Century Fox's art department in the mid-1960s when producer Irwin Allen selected him to become the first-season art director for Lost in Space, which aired for three seasons on CBS from 1965-68.