We’ve lost one of the all-time great movie poster artists, and the favorite of many film fans (not to mention Steven Spielberg), as it has been announced that Drew Struzan passed away yesterday, October 13th, at the age of 78. Struzan created many iconic posters over the course of his career, with films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Back to the Future, The Goonies, The Thing, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone being among the many that were promoted with his artwork. As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Spielberg was once quoted as saying that when he was making his movies, “I had to almost live up to the art that we later were going to ask Drew to create for the poster.”
Born in Oregon City, Oregon on March 18, 1947, Struzan went to college at the ArtCenter College of Design, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors. A trip to an employment agency landed him a job at a design studio that had him creating album cover artwork for the likes of Alice Cooper, The Beach Boys, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, Roy Orbison, Bee Gees, and others. After starting a small company with a friend, Struzan entered the world of movie poster art in 1975, working on B-movies like Empire of the Ants, Food of the Gods, and Squirm. Creating the artwork for a low budget sci-fi adventure movie called Star Wars in 1977 turned out to be a major breakthrough for him. Through the 1980s, he was making an average ten movie posters a year, including the Star Wars follow-ups, the Indiana Jones films, Blade Runner, The Cannonball Run, the Police Academy series,E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, The Muppet Movie, Coming to America, First Blood, Risky Business, D.C. Cab, Stroker Ace, Batteries Not Included, An American Tail, and the other movies mentioned above.
His poster career continued through the ’90s and into the 2000s, while he also branched out with comic books, collectible plates, board game covers, and postage stamps. After completing his work on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he announced his retirement in 2008 – but he came out of retirement multiple times over the years to work on a special cover of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower and posters for Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around The World, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the How to Train Your Dragon films. 2013 brought the release of a documentary about his life and career, Drew: The Man Behind the Poster.
Earlier this year, Struzan’s wife, Dylan, revealed that he had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for years and was fighting for his life. His fight came to an end yesterday. He is survived by Dylan, their son Christian, and their grandchildren.
Drew Struzan gave us some of the coolest posters ever created, and it’s sad to see him go. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends, and fans.
The post Iconic poster artist Drew Struzan has passed away at age 78 appeared first on JoBlo.
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