An industry legend known for his artwork on Hocus Pocus, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars has tragically died. Drew Struzan's work defined how generations remember the biggest cinematic adventures.
Tributes from filmmakers arrived quickly, each pointing to the same truth that Struzan made movies feel larger than life before audiences even took their seats. News outlets also reported that he had been unwell in recent years.
Speaking about the artist, Steven Spielberg said in tribute, per The Independent: “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.”
Guillermo del Toro expressed his grief, writing on Bluesky: “The world lost a genial man, a genius communicator and supreme artist. I lost a friend - beloved Drew.”
Per The Hollywood Reporter, DC president and Batman artist Jim Lee described Struzan as: “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.”
Family confirms loss
The news was shared on the artist’s official Instagram: “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.”
He died at the age of 78, with major outlets including THR reporting that he had faced Alzheimer’s disease in recent years.
A career that shaped cinematic memory
Over five decades, he created more than 150 posters that became inseparable from the films they promoted, including the Indiana Jones franchise, the Star Wars saga, the Back to the Future trilogy, and Hocus Pocus.
Born in Oregon in 1947, he moved to California to study at ArtCenter College of Design, then broke in with album covers for artists such as the Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, and Black Sabbath.
His breakthrough came in 1978 when he was invited to paint the human characters for the Star Wars re-release poster, which led to posters for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Thing, The Goonies, The Shawshank Redemption, and many others.
Though he largely retired in 2008 after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he returned for select projects and was the subject of the 2013 documentary Drew: The Man Behind the Poster.
“I felt that art was more than just telling the story,” he said in a 2021 interview with SlashFilm. “In fact, telling the story in a poster is wrong for a movie. I wasn’t looking to tell a story. I’m looking to give a person a feeling about something they could hope for.”
When asked to name his favorite poster, he always gave the same answer: “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.”