Snake Plissken, Indiana Jones, Princess Leia, Rambo, Marty McFly, Harry Potter, and Tinkerbell. What do these infamous, famous, and beloved characters have in common? They were all immortalized on movie posters by Drew Struzan.

Throughout his extensive career, Struzan has illustrated more than 150 movie posters. He is known as a favored artist of icons 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 episodes, the Back to the Future trilogy, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Hook, First Blood, and The Thing, among many others.

In addition to his movie posters, Struzan is also well known for his painted album covers, collectibles, and book covers.

Born in Oregon City, Oregon in 1947, when it came time to enroll in higher education, he chose to attend the Art Center College of Design in West Los Angeles, California in 1965. During a session with his guidance counselor, he was told that he could major in fine art or illustration. The counselor explained that majoring in fine art meant that he could paint what he wanted and that majoring in illustration meant that he’d get paid to paint.

The hungry artist chose to become an illustrator. While working his way through school, Struzan sold artwork and accepted small commission work. After five years he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors. He completed two years of graduate studies and eventually went back to the school for a short time years later to teach.

Following graduation he stayed in Los Angeles, working as a staff artist for the design studio Pacific Eye & Ear. He spent his time designing album covers, creating artwork for Black Sabbath, Tony Orlando and Dawn, the Bee Gees, the Beach Boys, Bach, Roy Orbison, Glenn Miller, Liberace, and Earth, Wind and Fire. Among his most celebrated covers was the illustration for Alice Cooper’s Welcome to My Nightmare.

The next step in his journey was the beginning of his movie career. He started Pencil Pushers, a small company with a friend who had a background in the movie industry, which lasted eight years. During this time he honed his skills, providing artwork for one-sheets with an airbrush style, which would become his signature. His first posters were commissioned in 1975, mainly for B-movies like Empire of the Ants and Food of the Gods. Then things took a dramatic turn for the best in 1977 when George Lucas hired artist Charles White III to design a Star Wars poster for the 1978 rerelease.

White, who was well known for his airbrush style, asked Struzan to help with the portraits of the characters on the poster. White focused on the ships, Darth Vader, C-3PO and mechanical details, while Struzan worked on the human characters using oil paints. White and Struzan painted several action images with Luke clutching Leia in one hand and a rope in another, Leia shooting a blaster, a portrait of Han Solo, Darth Vader wielding his lightsaber, and C-3PO and R2-D2 cruising in a land speeder. When the artists learned that there wasn’t enough room to list the film’s credits, they manipulated the image to make it appear to be a torn bill posted on plywood. They added Obi-Wan on the lower left side to make it look wider and deeper. The Star Wars style D poster became popularly known as the circus poster.

He continued working with George Lucas by designing the original logo for his special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic. A few years later he created a post-release poster for the Steven Spielberg directed, Lucas co-written and produced, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Struzan’s post-released poster became the primary image for the film, replacing the one-sheet in theaters. Continuing with the series, 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, he 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 he was creating about ten poster designs each year, including those for some of the biggest films of the decade. In 1982 he was commissioned to work on concepts for Ridley Scott’s sci-fi movie Blade Runner. His poster design was shelved, but years later he was contacted to provide art for a director’s version of the film. He updated the art and it was used for the DVD cover in 2007.

Then in 1985, he created his first Back to the Future poster featuring time traveling teen Marty McFly checking his watch as he gets ready for an adventure. He followed that up with the Back to the Future Part II poster in ’89 depicting Marty in his futuristic clothing, joined by Doc Brown. A year later he provided art for the last chapter in the trilogy, giving it a Wild West theme with Marty and Doc in cowboy clothing, joined by Doc’s love interest Clara. The second and third posters follow the format of the first movie, presenting a seamless transition from one to the next. Some of his other works throughout the ’80s included Cannonball Run, Police Academy, Coming to America, Risky Business, An American Tail, The Goonies, and Adventures in Babysitting.

When computer imagery started dominating the poster industry, design work offers began to decline. Due to the rise in popularity for computer-designed images on posters, work hadn’t been as steady for Struzan, stunting the Neoclassic style that dominated the ’70s and ’80s. Despite having fewer job offers, Struzan still created iconic poster art for films like Hook, The Shawshank Redemption, Hellboy, and the American version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

With the decline of commissions for movie poster art, Struzan branched out into other types of media and venues for his art. He worked on comics, drew for games and collectibles, and providing limited edition art. He illustrated the art for U.S. 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.

After completing the extensive artwork for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008, he announced his retirement. But that hasn’t stopped him from completing more work, including producing the DVD Conceiving and Creating the Hellboy Movie Poster Art with a step-by-step process, creating an image of Mattel’s Barbie for Kurv magazine in celebration of the doll’s 50th birthday, and early in 2015 he designed a poster for the documentary Batkid Begins. Many of his fans have been hoping that he’d come out of retirement again to produce one-sheet designs for the new Star Wars movie, and he did not disappoint. As of the writing of this book, Struzan designed a one-sheet teaser for The Force Awakens for Disney’s 2015 D23 Expo.

Struzan’s distinct style has become a favorite among movie poster collectors. His detailed process started with sketching out drawings on illustration board, then tinting the draftsmanship with airbrushed acrylic paint, finishing with highlights and details with colored pencils, and finally more airbrushing. His work honors the film rather than just trying to promote it by simultaneously presenting an imaginative look at the movie while realistically connecting fans to the characters.

Learn more about Struzan’s artwork and other movie posters in The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Movie Posters.