Some of film’s most iconic images aren’t from the movies themselves — film posters can become as well-known and recognisable as the pictures they’re promoting. That’s certainly the case with the work of poster designer Bill Gold, who has passed away aged 97. The artist had an epic career spanning eight decades of cinema classics, from Casablanca in 1942 (only his second assignment ever, following Yankee Doodle Dandy), to Clint Eastwood’s biopic J. Edgar in 2011.
Along the way he designed work for the films of Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier, Ridley Scott, William Friedkin, Ron Howard and plenty more of Hollywood’s all-time greats. Take a look below at some of his very best and most famous poster designs, which are long-ingrained in the history of cinema — and bound to inspire future designers for decades to come.
Casablanca
(1942, Michael Curtiz)
Strangers on a Train
(1951, Alfred Hitchcock)
Dial M for Murder
(1954, Alfred Hitchcock)
Bonnie and Clyde
(1967, Arthur Penn)
Cool Hand Luke
(1967, Stuart Rosenberg)
Bullitt
(1968, Peter Yates)
A Clockwork Orange
(1971, Stanley Kubrick)
Dirty Harry
(1971, Don Siegel)
Deliverance
(1972, John Boorman)
The Exorcist
(1973, William Friedkin)
The Sting
(1973, George Roy Hill)
For Your Eyes Only
(1981, John Glen)
Platoon
(1986, Oliver Stone)
The Untouchables
(1987, Brian De Palma)
Goodfellas
(1990, Martin Scorsese)
Unforgiven
(1992, Clint Eastwood)
Mystic River
(2003, Clint Eastwood)