Drew Struzan dead: poster artist for 'Star Wars,' 'Indiana Jones'

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.

“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 says. “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 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.

George Lucas, from left, Michael Eisner and Drew Struzan unveil the lithograph created to commemorate the Indiana Jones attraction at Disneyland in 1995.

(Kari Rene Hall / Los Angeles Times)

“A giant among giants,” artist and DC Comics president Jim Lee wrote in a comment on the post announcing Struzan’s death. “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.”

“Drew made event art,” Spielberg said in a statement to Deadline. “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, Ore., in 1947, Struzan moved to Los Angeles to attend Art Center College of Design. He started his career designing album covers for artists including the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, Roy Orbison, Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper before he was approached by a film studio to try his hand at movie posters. His first was for the 1975 George Segal comedy “The Black Bird.”

Struzan’s big break came when he was hired to do the re-release poster for a certain 1977 space western.

“Drew was an artist of the highest order,” Lucas said in Lucasfilm’s tribute to Struzan. “His illustrations fully captured the excitement, tone and spirit of each of my films his artwork represented. His creativity, through a single illustrated image, opened up a world full of life in vivid color … even at a glance. I was lucky to have worked with him time and time again.”

A person stands in front of three framed posters.

The admiration was mutual.

“George [Lucas] wanted to be an illustrator,” Struzan said in a 2014 interview with The Times. “He loves paintings. He wants to use illustrations because they reach the heart, whereas photographs just don’t do it for him. … I have worked with Steven Spielberg since ‘E.T.’ We are the same age … and we have gotten along the whole time. That’s part of it, being at the right place at the right time.”

The artist explained that creating posters is a collaborative effort. For films including “Hook” (1991), Struzan read the script, visited the set and worked through the idea with Spielberg. For “Hellboy,” Del Toro visited Struzan at his home studio to discuss ideas.

“The world lost a genial man, a genius communicator and a supreme artist,” Del Toro wrote in his tribute to Struzan on Bluesky. “I lost a friend”

Over the course of his career, Struzan collected accolades including a Saturn Award and an Inkpot Award. He was also inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame and was the subject of the 2013 documentary “Drew: The Man Behind the Poster.”

“You should be able to watch a movie and understand what it is about without hearing a word they say because it’s a visual medium,” Struzan said in a 2017 interview with the documentary’s director, Erik Sharkey, on HuffPost. “[Directors] like Darabont, Del Toro, Spielberg and Lucas … are artists. They are trying to show beauty and truth and goodness. And because they make those kinds of movies, they remain in our hearts and minds. They are telling us the best things about us.”