Drew Struzan, the acclaimed artist and illustrator behind iconic movie posters like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Empire Strikes Back and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, has died.
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Struzan passed away on Monday at the age of 78, several years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, according to Deadline.
Struzan’s Instagram announced his death in a statement.
“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,” his longtime collaborator Greg Aronowitz wrote.
“Drew made event art,” legendary director Steven Spielberg told Variety of Struzan’s prolific work. “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.”
With the passing of Drew Struzan, the prolific movie poster illustrator leaves behind a legacy of iconic film visuals from Star Wars to Indiana Jones and beyond. https://t.co/NmDw8I2Q2v pic.twitter.com/uazMKtFk6g
— Star Wars (@starwars) October 15, 2025
Struzan, a favorite of directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, created iconic posters for some of the biggest films of the past 50 years. His work includes the golden-hued illustration for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade featuring Harrison Ford, the special edition poster for The Empire Strikes Back highlighting Darth Vader, and the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone poster showcasing Daniel Radcliffe and other characters.
We are quite sadden to learn of the passing of Drew Struzan. His impact on the @BacktotheFuture franchise is immeasurable. https://t.co/8wXOUrgY6K pic.twitter.com/Y8MKKg8lVN
— Back to the Future™ (@BacktotheFuture) October 14, 2025
Struzan created poster art for an exhaustive amount of iconic films, including Blade Runner, The Thing, The Cannonball Run, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, The Muppet Movie, First Blood, Risky Business, An American Tail, and The Goonies.
Drew Struzan’s Collaborations with Star Wars Mastermind George Lucas Date Back to 1978
Struzan was born on March 18, 1947, in Oregon City, Oregon, and moved to Los Angeles at 18 to study at the Art Center College of Design.
After designing album covers, like Alice Cooper’s 1975 release Welcome to My Nightmare, Struzan started his movie poster career with mid-1970s B-movies such as Empire of the Ants and Food of the Gods. In 1977, George Lucas hired Struzan to paint the human characters for the 1978 re-release poster of Star Wars, marking the beginning of a long collaboration with Lucas’s iconic franchise.
What's really special about Drew Struzan's work is that for every iconic movie poster he designed, there were dozens more — created for movies that were overlooked, underappreciated, or simply forgotten. Sometimes, his art even ended up being more memorable than the movie. pic.twitter.com/sY0iuDUxBr
— Joe Ramoni (@joeramoni) October 14, 2025
Struzan designed over 150 posters. According to Deadline, when asked his favorite, he replied, “My favorite is always the very next one.”