ROBERT McGINNIS RIP

My favorite James Bond, Sean Connery, and my favorite poster done by McGinnis.

I don’t usually do Memorial Posts— yes, I did just write yesterday about FALLEN COMRADES night— I guess that’s a memorial, and in the past I’ve written about my friend Mike Warshaw, my client Adam West and a few others here and there, but I don’t like this blog to be too focused on losses.

Robert McGinnis was such an influential illustrator even though I didn’t know who he was. Not only did he do a host of movie posters, many of which hung in my boyhood room, he also did countless paperback covers usually in the Hardboiled genre of two fisted detectives so there was at least a Michael Shayne novel on my boyhood shelf too.

Diamonds Are Forever— probably the worst Sean Connery Bond film, but it’s a fun movie.

In 1973 I was allowed to go to the movies with my friends— and the Galleria had a movie theater— Showcase was closer, but the Galleria often had double features. The Paris Cinema had Saturday Matinee’s featuring things like Godzilla and King Kong but the Galleria had James Bond. I remember seeing a Double Feature of LIVE AND LET DIE and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.

I was a fan. The things I loved about James Bond are the same things I love today— the action (love the killing of a good bad guy), the scenery—I loved how things were actually filmed at the real locations— and the gadgets. I hated the bit with the ladies (still don’t enjoy that part of it) and I’d get up and go get some popcorn during those “boring” parts. I still do the same thing today.

Back to McGinnis— he was behind a lot of these great images from my boyhood, and he passed away in March at the age of 99 and as far as I know he had only recently retired.

RIP to an amazing artist.