The poster artist for “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” was 78 years old
Drew Struzan, the artist and illustrator who created some of the most beloved and memorable movie posters of all time — Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Futurejust to name a few – he died on October 13, several years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 78 years old.
His death was announced on his official Instagram page. His wife, Dylan Struzan, announced in March that his health was deteriorating, writing on Facebook: “Drew can no longer draw or sign for you. He is not enjoying a well-deserved retirement but is fighting for his life.”
Today’s Instagram post noted, “It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that Drew Struzan has moved on from this world as of yesterday, October 13. I feel it is important for you all to know how many times he expressed to me the joy he felt knowing how much you appreciated his art.”
A favorite of directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Struzan has created the enduring images associated with some of the biggest films of the 20th century: this collection of gold-tone illustrations from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusadecentered around Harrison Ford and a fedora; Special edition of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Backgiving pride of place to Darth Vader; and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stonewith various characters surrounding a bespectacled Daniel Radcliffe.
“Drew created the art of the event,” Spielberg said in a statement. “His posters have turned many of our films into destinations…and memories of those films and the age in which we watched them always come back with just a glance at his distinctive photorealism. With his innovative style, no one painted like Drew.”
Among the album’s many cover illustrations was Alice Cooper’s 1975 release Welcome to my nightmare.
Struzan’s film work was chronicled in director Eric Sharkey’s 2013 documentary Drew: The man behind the posterHe provided first impressions for a notable number of films, including Blade Runner, The Thing, The Cannonball Run, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, ET the Extra-Terrestrial, The Muppet Movie, First Blood, Risky Business, American Tail and Fools.
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Struzan was born on March 18, 1947, in Oregon City, Oregon, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18 to attend the Art Center College of Design. “Because I was in L.A., I got the work that came from L.A.,” he said in a 1999 interview. “It’s only because I was here and they recognized my work and offered me jobs. I took them. I was poor and hungry, and drawing was the shortest way to a slice of bread, compared to a gallery. I didn’t have anything when I was a kid. I used to draw on toilet paper with pencils – that was the only paper available. Maybe the reason I love drawing so much today is because it was all I had then.”
After a stint designing album covers, Struzan began his career on movie posters for B-movies in the mid-1970s such as Ant empire and ambrosia. In 1977 he was recruited to draw human figures for the poster for the 1978 reissue. star wars. The mission launched a long-running collaboration for Lucas’s Star Wars franchise.
When asked to choose his favorite poster out of more than 150 posters he has designed, Struzan replied: “My favorite is always the next one.”
Complete information about the survivors was not immediately available.