Drew Struzan, Iconic Movie Poster Artist and Favorite of Spielberg and Lucas, Dies at 78

Drew Struzan, Iconic Movie Poster Artist and Favorite of Spielberg and Lucas, Dies at 78

Drew Struzan, the iconic movie poster artist who created the marketing art for an enormous number of popular films, has died at 78. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease several years ago and retreated from public life.

Struzan’s official Instagram account announced the news Tuesday: “It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that Drew Struzan has moved on from this world as of yesterday, October 13th. I feel it is important that you all know how many times he expressed to me the joy he felt knowing how much you appreciated his art.”

Struzan was once dubbed the “one-sheet wonder,” a go-to artist for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who created the posters for films such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Risky Business, the special edition of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Future, The Goonies, The Thing and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

The artist’s signature style was bold, dramatic and colorful. He never failed to capture a film’s tone perfectly, often focusing heavily on its characters — layering a sprawling ensemble cast into a single image was a Struzan specialty. Spielberg once called him “my favorite movie artist” and later added, “I had to almost live up to the art that we later were going to ask Drew to create for the poster.”

Reactions to Struzan’s passing began to pour in following the announcement. Spielberg wrote: “Drew made event art. His posters made many of our movies into destinations … and the memory of those movies and the age we were when we saw them always comes flashing back just by glancing at his iconic photorealistic imagery. In his own invented style, nobody drew like Drew.”

Guillermo del Toro posted, “The world lost a genial man, a genius communicator and supreme artist. I lost a friend — beloved Drew.”

DC president and Batman artist Jim Lee wrote: “A giant among giants. His work captured the humanity, power and emotion of his subjects in ways not seen since. Thank you for bringing to life all the tentpole moments of my childhood and beyond.”

Marvel artist J. Scott Campbell wrote: “Very heartbreaking to read this and to wrap my mind around the finality of it all, of an amazing man and the legacy of incredible work. He has left us all with so much beauty to enjoy for generations to come. I know the past few years have been especially difficult and I can only hope that this gives him and all of his loved ones some sense of peace.”

At a tribute to Struzan in 2018, the artist himself said, “I’m thinking about my childhood and how I never had a birthday party, never had a good meal, everywhere I went, I worked my ass off. Nothing was ever given to me before, except by these lovely people” — referring to the directors who hired him over the years.

Struzan’s work was chronicled by director Erik Sharkey in the 2013 documentary Drew: The Man Behind the Poster.

When asked which poster was his favorite, he would reply: “If I had a favorite, then I would have already done the best I can do. I’d lose my spark of creativity. My favorite is always the very next one.”