By the time he died at the age of 97 on May 20, designer Bill Gold had cemented his place as one of the most iconic movie poster artists in Hollywood history. He had designed posters for an incredible variety of classic films, from Casablanca to The Exorcist. He once said that in his “wildest dreams,” he never would have “foreseen the career he would have.”
“I know what movie posters should look like, instinctively,” he said once, according to The Guardian. “My style is and has always been less is more. I don’t like a cluttered look. Clean, simple and to the point.”
He said that his objective in creating the posters was to sell the film, and entice an audience to see it. He did this with revealing and striking images as well as typography. He would never try to tell the whole story because that would be too confusing. He said his most significant relationship was with Clint Eastwood, though he also worked on poster campaigns for films by Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Federico Fellini. He said Eastwood was “as good as it gets” professionally and that he has “wonderful taste and a remarkable eye for art.”
Check out some of Gold’s legendary posters below.
Casablanca
Strangers on a Train
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Bonnie and Clyde
Clockwork Orange
A Streetcar Named Desire
For Your Eyes Only
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