Movie poster artist Drew Struzan, who created posters for several iconic films of the late 20th century, died on Monday, October 13, 2025, from Alzheimer’s disease. He was diagnosed several years ago. Struzan was 78 years old.

Struzan illustrated more than 150 movie posters, and was known as a favorite artist of filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. He utilized his realism-focused style on memorable posters for many box office blockbusters and cult favorites including multiple Star Wars movies, the Back to the Future trilogy, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Hook, First Blood, and The Thing, among many others.

Born in Oregon City, Oregon on March 18, 1947, Struzan attended the Art Center College of Design in West Los Angeles, California where he majored in illustration. Following graduation, he worked as a staff artist for a design studio, and designed album covers for Black Sabbath, Tony Orlando and Dawn, the Bee Gees, the Beach Boys, Bach, Roy Orbison, Glenn Miller, Liberace, and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Struzan started Pencil Pushers, a small art company, where he began providing art for B-movie one-sheets like Empire of the Ants and Food of the Gods. His first major work was on the Star Wars style D poster, aka the Circus Poster, where he helped artist Charles White III on the portraits of the human characters.

He designed the original logo for Industrial Light & Magic, and created a post-release poster for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, then he provided all the promotional art for The Last Crusade and video box covers for Young Indiana Jones. In addition to creating poster designs for new movies, Struzan was sought after to paint artwork for rereleases, reissues, video releases, book covers, theme park rides, and video games. His work became the defining imagery for Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

Throughout the 1980s Struzan was creating about ten poster designs each year, including those for some of the biggest films of the decade. That included Blade Runner (the art was shelved, then used years later), Back to the Future and the sequels, Cannonball Run, Police Academy, Coming to America, Risky Business, An American Tail, The Goonies, and Adventures in Babysitting.

Throughout the ‘90s and into the 2000s, he designed poster art for films like Hook, The Shawshank Redemption, Hellboy, and the American version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. When computer imagery started dominating the poster industry, design work offers began to decline.

Outside of movie posters, he worked on comics, made art for games and collectibles, and provided limited edition art. He illustrated the art for US postage stamps of Jimmy Stewart, composer Dimitri Tiomkin, and Yoda, drew the cover for Parker Brothers’ new edition of Clue in 1996, and produced Franklin Mint collectible plates, including a 12-piece set commemorating Princess Diana. When the third Star Wars trilogy began, Struzan designed a one-sheet teaser for The Force Awakens for Disney’s 2015 D23 Expo.