Odds are you’ve seen Drew Struzan’s work at some point. The artist and illustrator was responsible for some of the most iconic movie posters around. From Star Wars to The Shawshank Redemption, he elevated the promotional marketing format into a pop art form few have been able to match. He passed away earlier this week at the age of 78.
His career started with album art for groups like The Beach Boys and Earth, Wind & Fire, before he moved on to creating the airbrushed one-sheets for movies that would make him famous in the late ’70s. His wife revealed earlier this year that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
“Drew made event art,” Steven Spielberg said in a statement (via Variety). “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.”
RIP to the absolute master, Drew Struzan pic.twitter.com/jf2OFBwwzg
— N E E D L E (@needledesign) October 14, 2025
RIP Drew Struzan pic.twitter.com/VxBVbouc0R
— 70s Sci-Fi Art (@70sscifi) October 14, 2025
RIP to the best that ever did it. Drew Struzan; 1947 – 2025 https://t.co/A7mFidhlCT
— Del (@TheCartelDel) October 14, 2025
His famous designs included work for movies as disparate as The Empire Strikes Back, Goonies, The Thing, Blade Runner, and Risky Business. His style collapsed photo-realistic portraiture into dense and dramatic compositions that married the deeply personal and the fantastical.
His lasting influence on cover art of all types is immeasurable, including in video games. There are clear nods to his airbrush style and framing in the box art for the original Death Stranding, and Judas director Ken Levine said Struzan’s work was a direct inspiration for the key art for the upcoming sci-fi immersive sim.
“A giant among giants,” wrote DC’s Jim Lee in response to Struzan’s passing (via Hollywood Reporter). “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.”
If you’ve visited a movie theater in the last decade, you can feel the shadow cast by Struzan’s absence on the lobby walls. Some of the posters are fine. Almost all of them are forgettable. Now with the rise of AI, Hollywood seems to have less of an appetite than ever for trying to treat its biggest releases with a human touch. Thanks to the streaming revolution, movies are no longer a destination, and Struzan’s art feels as much like a relic as the stuff in those crates at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
