Legendary movie poster artist Drew Struzan died October 13, 2025 at the age of 78. He had been battling Alzheimer’s for several years.
Struzan’s death was made on his 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.”
Struzan is responsible for some of the most iconic movie posters of all time, but his legacy may arguably be his posters for the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Back to the Future franchises, artwork that captured the magic of those movies for generations of fans.
“I had to almost live up to the art that we later were going to ask Drew to create for the poster,” Steven Spielberg once said.
Born in 1947 in Oregon, Struzan initially attracted notice for his album covers for musical artists like the Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, and Black Sabbath before Hollywood called on his services and incredible skills as a fine artist.
Slash Film put this career transition for Struzan best, writing: “For an artist who vibed on the macabre and cosmic fantasies of 1970s music acts, Struzan was a natural fit for a Hollywood that was on the cusp of a massive paradigm shift toward gee-whiz epic sci-fi and cliffhanger-driven mega-adventures.”
Struzan soon graduated from creating posters for ‘70s B-movies like Food of the Gods and Empire of the Ants to taking his first step into a larger world by illustrating the human figures in this poster for the 1978 re-release of Star Wars.
Struzan went on to create iconic posters for a slew of movies from the 1980s and ‘90s, including: E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Blade Runner, The Thing, Shawshank Redemption, Big Trouble in Little China, The Goonies, Adventures in Babysitting, Batteries Not Included, An American Tail, Cannonball Run, Coming to America, Dreamscape, First Blood, The Muppet Movie, Muppet Treasure Island, The Great Muppet Caper, Harry and the Hendersons, Hook, Hocus Pocus, Johnny Dangerously, Masters of the Universe, Name of the Rose, Return to Oz, Rocky IV, Angels in the Outfield and, believe it or not, the Police Academy movies.
He later created the posters for Guillermo del Toro’s first two Hellboy movies and Pan’s Labyrinth.
“If you want a story, go see the movie,” Struzan told Los Angeles Magazine in 2014 when asked about his approach to illustrating movie posters. “It’s pure feeling instead of all the other stuff behind it.”
What are your favorite Drew Struzan movie posters? Let us know in the comments.
