Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro Honor Drew Struzan, the Man Behind Cinema’s Most Iconic Posters
Iconic movie poster artist Drew Struzan, whose illustrations defined Star Wars and Indiana Jones, died October 13, with Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro leading tributes after the news was announced on his official Instagram.
Drew Struzan, the artist behind so many of the movie posters burned into our brains, has died at 78. If you ever fell in love with a film before the first frame, odds are one of his posters did the flirting. Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro, two longtime collaborators, are among those honoring him.
The news
The announcement came via Struzan's official Instagram on October 14, posted by his social media manager, Greg, who shared an illustration of Drew and explained that Struzan passed the day before, October 13. Greg also made a point of saying how often Drew talked about the joy he felt knowing people loved his work. Struzan had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease several years prior.
Tributes from filmmakers who knew him
"Drew made event art. 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."
That was Steven Spielberg, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, summing up why a Struzan poster isn't just advertising, it's a time machine.
Guillermo del Toro remembered him on Bluesky, calling him "a genial man, a genius communicator and a supreme artist," and adding, "I lost a friend - beloved Drew."
The work you know by heart
Struzan's name might not have been on the marquee, but his brush basically defined blockbuster iconography. He teamed up with Spielberg and del Toro on films like Indiana Jones, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Hellboy, and his portfolio is stacked with classics:
- Back to the Future
- Blade Runner
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Harry Potter
- The Thing
Deep-cut legacy and later years
File this under delightful nerd detail: Struzan designed the original logo for Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects house George Lucas founded. He officially retired in 2008, but couldn't resist coming back for a few big swings, including posters for Stephen King's The Dark Tower, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy (among a handful of other projects).
It's hard to overstate the imprint he left. Struzan didn't just capture faces; he distilled the feeling of a movie into one image. No algorithm can do that. And, frankly, nobody drew like Drew.