Drew Struzan, the renowned artist known for designing posters for films including “Star Wars,” “Back to the Future” and “Blade Runner,” died on Monday. He was 78.
Struzan’s Instagram account released a statement announcing his death. “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,” read the statement from longtime collaborator Greg Aronowitz.
“Drew made event art,” said frequent collaborator Steven Spielberg on Struzan’s legacy. “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.”
Born in Oregon City, Struzan enrolled at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, where he sold his artwork and small commissions to pay for college. While living in Los Angeles, Struzan found a job as a local artist for Pacific Eye & Ear, where he worked under the direction of artist Ernie Cefalu.
Struzan designed album covers for artists including The Beach Boys, Bee Gees and Earth, Wind & Fire, and illustrated Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare” album cover, charging $150 to $250 per drawing. During his tenure at Pacific Eye & Ear, Struzan began working on promotional movie posters in 1975, where he did artwork for smaller budget films such as “Empire of the Ants” and “Squirm.”
Struzan was approached by artist Charles White III, who had been hired by David Weitzner, the Vice President of Advertising at 20th Century Fox, to create a new poster design for the re-release of “Star Wars” in 1978. White brought on Struzan to help paint the human characters in oil while White focused on painting the mechanical details and ships on the poster.
After working on “Star Wars,” Struzan illustrated posters for films like “Blade Runner,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Coming to America,” “The Goonies” and “The Muppet Movie.”
In the 2000s, Struzan worked on Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” before announcing his retirement in 2008. He previously came out of retirement to design posters in collaboration for Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around The World,” and the “How To Train Your Dragon” trilogy.
In 2013, Struzan was the subject of Erik Sharkey’s documentary “Drew: The Man Behind The Poster,” which examined the artist’s work and life, with interviews with collaborators like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford.
In an interview with Slashfilm in 2021, Struzan detailed the creative process behind each poster, and the impact of his artwork. “I felt that art was more than just telling the story. I’m looking to give a person a feeling about something they could hope for,” said Strauzen. “I asked the directors what they’re doing and why they were doing it, [and] I try to find the best in what they are doing, then I paint that way. I look for the best pictures I can find of the actors and scenes [and] I look for the color palette. I design a composition that is open ended, not closed ended saying, ‘This is what you have to think about this.’ I feel like I’ve done a good job when that happens.”
