Drew Struzan—the legendary illustrator behind some of the most iconic and beloved movie posters of all time—has died. He was 78.
The news was confirmed this morning on Struzan’s official Instagram account, accompanied by a self-portrait. “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,” the statement reads in part. “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’s career spanned decades of illustrative works, crafting theatrical posters for some of the most iconic pop culture hits of all time, from Back to the Future, Blade Runner, ET, and many more, before he formally retired in 2008 after his work on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Struzan would spend the next decade and a half occasionally exiting that retirement to create special one-off works or curate archival releases of some of his most beloved creations.
He will perhaps be best remembered by Star Wars fans as the artist behind some of the most famous posters from the entire saga. He first joined the galaxy far, far away for the original film’s 1978 re-release, working with Charles White III on a new one-sheet, the famous “Circus” poster depicting Luke and Leia as they prepared to swing across the Death Star’s chasms. From there, Struzan would illustrate dozens more posters for the original saga, as well as defining pieces of art for Indiana Jones.
His association with Lucasfilm continued with the amazing artwork for Star Wars‘ special edition re-release in the ’90s, and then, of course, the theatrical posters for each movie in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Struzan would come out of retirement in 2015 to illustrate a special poster for The Force Awakens, his final official work for the series.
Struzan is survived by his wife, Dylan, as well as his son, Christian. Our thoughts go out to his family in this sad time.
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