Bill Gold (1921-2018) is an American former graphic designer best known for thousands of film poster designs. He began his professional design career in 1941, in the advertising department of Warner Bros.. Gold became head of poster design in 1947. His first film poster was for
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1941), and his most recent work was for
J. Edgar (2011).
“I know what movie posters should look like, instinctively,” he told the
New York Times “I looked at everything that MGM and Paramount and all the companies did, and I never liked anything that I saw. I always found fault with the fact that they showed three heads of the actors, and that’s about all the concept they would use. And when I started to work, I thought: I don’t want to just do a concept with three heads in it. I want a story.”
During his 70-year career he has worked with some of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, including Laurence Olivier, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Elia Kazan, Ridley Scott, and many more. Among his most famous film posters are those for
Casablanca and
A Clockwork Orange.
 |
| Yankee Doodle Dandy (1941). Gold’s first poster. |
 |
| Barbarella (1968) |
 |
| The Wild Bunch (1969) |
 |
| Rope (1948) |
 |
| Klute (1971) |
 |
| The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) |
 |
| Casablanca (1942) |
 |
| A Face in the Crowd (1957) |
 |
| Strangers on a Train (1951) |
 |
| Dial M for Murder (1954) |
 |
| Baby Doll (1956) |
 |
| Giant (1956) |
 |
| The Old Man and the Sea (1958) |
 |
| Bonnie and Clyde (1968) |
 |
| Illustrated Man (1969) |
 |
| J Edgar (2011). Bill Gold’s last poster. |
 |
| Mahogany (1975) |
 |
| The Go-Between (1971) |
 |
| Pale Rider (1985) |
 |
| Deliverance (1972) |
 |
| Marathon Man (1976) |
 |
| All the President’s Men (1976) |
 |
| Sugarland Express (1974) |
 |
| The Exorcist (1972) |
 |
| The Sting (1973) |
 |
| Splendor in the Grass (1961) |
 |
| The Wrong Man (1956) |
 |
| The Fox (1967) |
(via
Flashbak)
