Drew Struzan – RIP
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Movie poster artist Drew Struzan has passed away.
Howard Drew Struzan
March 18, 1947 – October 13, 2025
From Tracy Brown’s L. A. Times obituary via The Seattle Times:
LOS ANGELES — Drew Struzan, the artist who created some of the most recognizable posters for movies including “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Blade Runner” and “Back to the Future,” has died. He was 78.
Struzan died Monday, according to a Tuesday post on his official Instagram account. Dylan Struzan revealed in March that her husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease several years ago.
Struzan’s work was a favorite among filmmakers including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Frank Darabont and Guillermo del Toro. In addition to posters for the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises, Struzan created posters for “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982), “The Goonies” (1985), “An American Tail” (1986), “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001), “Hellboy” (2004), “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006), the animated “How to Train Your Dragon” films and more.
From James Hibberd at The Hollywood Reporter:
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.”
From Grant Watson at FictionMachine:
For those of us who grew up in the 1980s, he effectively illustrated our childhoods by illustrating the theatrical posters to some of the decades most popular films. It is worth noting some of his posters to realise just how influential he was. In the best cases, Struzan’s art remains synonymous with the films he was promoting. In some examples, his art could be better than the films themselves.
On a personal level, nothing by Struzan resonates as strongly with me as his work for the Muppets. Creator Jim Henson once remarked that no one captured the essence of the Muppet characters as effectively as Struzan, who wound up painting the theatrical posters to The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and Muppet Treasure Island.
Peter Debruge for Variety picks “Drew Struzan’s 10 Best Movie Posters”
If you are a child of the 1970s or ’80s, you were lucky enough to grow up in the golden age of Hollywood movie posters — a time before PhotoShop and AI, when key art (as it’s known within the trade) really was art.
Here, I’m talking about legends like Bob Peak (“Apocalypse Now”), Roger Castel (“Jaws”), David Grove (“Something Wicked This Way Comes”) and my personal favorite, Drew Struzan, who became the go-to poster artist for George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro, painting the iconic images for the “Star Wars”, “Indiana Jones” and even “Police Academy” franchises.
From Jermayn at Chronicle Chamber:
Drew Struzan created iconic posters for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back To The Future, and countless other films, including creating two 1996 Phantom movie concepts that sadly never went to market.
In looking at the two Phantom concept posters attached, we phans can only think about what could have been if Paramount, the marketing team, and the execs had decided to go with these poster designs over the Slam Evil design.
Also included with The Phantom posters is Drew Struzan’s cover for Action Comics #800 (2003)
Drew Struzan’s Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame page.
Discog has a Drew Struzan discography of his record albums covers.
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