Bill Gold

For Hungarian-born American businessman and professor, see Bela Gold.

Bill Gold
Born	William Gold (1921-01-03)January 3, 1921 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Died	May 20, 2018(2018-05-20) (aged 97) Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
Alma mater	Pratt Institute
Occupation(s)	Graphic designer, film poster artist
Years active	1941–2011

William Gold (January 3, 1921 – May 20, 2018) was an American graphic designer best known for thousands of film poster designs.

His first film poster was for Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and his.final work was for J. Edgar (2011).

During his 70-year career he 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.

Early career

Bill Gold was born on January 3, 1921, in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Samuel J. Tilden High School, he studied illustration and design at Pratt Institute in New York. He began his professional design career in 1941, in the advertising department of Warner Bros. Bill Gold became head of poster design in 1947. In 1959 his brother Charlie joined him in the business and they formed BG Charles to do the film trailers. Charlie operated BG Charles in Los Angeles, while Bill operated in New York City. In 1987 Charlie left the business and retired to Vermont. Charlie Gold died at the age of 75 on December 25, 2003. Bill Gold lived in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Bill Gold Advertising

In 1962, Bill Gold created Bill Gold Advertising in New York City. In 1997 Bill moved the company to Stamford, Connecticut, and continued his business, producing posters for every film Clint Eastwood produced, directed, and/or acted in, among others. In 1994 Bill was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Hollywood Reporter. Richard Benjamin was the MC for the ceremony at the Directors Guild, and Clint Eastwood presented the award to Bill Gold on behalf of The Hollywood Reporter. In 2011, Bill ended an unsuccessful retirement when he agreed to create posters for Clint Eastwood's film, J. Edgar.

Bill Gold was an active member of the Society of Illustrators, the Art Directors Club and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A limited-edition, oversized one-volume retrospective was published in January 2011 in coordination with Gold's 90th birthday.

Film posters

Gold's US theatrical release poster for Casablanca (1942)

Gold's original theatrical release poster for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

After his first film project, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Gold collaborated with the American film industry's top film directors and film producers. Especially fruitful was Gold's relationship with the illustrator Bob Peak. Gold's work has spanned eight decades and has inspired numerous other designers.

1940s

• Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Night and Day (1946)
• The Big Sleep (1946)
• Escape Me Never (1947)
• Winter Meeting (1948)

1950s

• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
• Dial M for Murder (1954)
• The Silver Chalice (1954)
• East of Eden (1955)
• Mister Roberts (1955)
• Baby Doll (1955)
• Giant (1956)
• Lone Ranger (1956)
• Moby Dick (1956)
• The Searchers (1956)
• The Wrong Man (1956)
• A Face in the Crowd (1957)
• The James Dean Story (1957)
• The Pajama Game (1957)
• The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)
• Top Secret Affair (1957)
• The Old Man and the Sea (1958)

1960s

• Splendor in the Grass (1961)
• Gypsy (1962)
• The Music Man (1962)
• My Fair Lady (1964)
• Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
• Sex and the Single Girl (1964)
• The Great Race (1965)
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
• Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
• Camelot (1967)
• Cool Hand Luke (1967)
• The Fox (1967)
• Wait Until Dark (1967)
• Bullitt (1968)
• Funny Girl (1968)
• A Dream of Kings (1969)
• The Illustrated Man (1969)

1970s

• Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)
• No Blade of Grass (1970)
• Ryan's Daughter (1970)
• Soldier Blue (1970)
• Start the Revolution Without Me (1970)
• The Go-Between (1970)
• There Was a Crooked Man (1970)
• There's a Girl in My Soup (1970)
• Dorian Gray (1970)
• A Clockwork Orange (1971)
• Woodstock (1970)
• Diamonds are Forever (1971)
• Fiddler on the Roof (1970)
• Get Carter (1970)
• Klute (1971)
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
• Medicine Ball Caravan (1971)
• Deliverance (1972)
• Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
• Joe Kidd (1972)
• The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
• Lady Sings the Blues (1972)
• The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972)
• What's Up, Doc? (1972)
• Day for Night (1973)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• High Plains Drifter (1973)
• O Lucky Man (1973)
• Oklahoma Crude (1973)
• Papillon (1973)
• Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
• Scarecrow (1973)
• Steelyard Blues (1973)
• The Sting (1973)
• The Way We Were (1973)
• The Front Page (1974)
• Law and Disorder (1974)
• Mame (1974)
• 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974)
• The Odessa File (1974)
• The Sugarland Express (1974)
• The Yakuza (1974)
• Zandy's Bride (1974)
• Barry Lyndon (1975)
• Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
• The Drowning Pool (1975)
• Funny Lady (1975)
• Hard Times (1975)

• Mahogany (1975)
• Mister Quilp (1975)
• The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975)
• Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975)
• Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
• Rooster Cogburn (1975)
• Rosebud (1975)
• The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
• The Hindenburg (1975)
• The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
• A Matter of Time (1976)
• A Star Is Born (1976)
• All the President's Men (1976)
• The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976)
• The Enforcer (1976)
• Fellini's Casanova (1976)
• Gable and Lombard (1976)
• Marathon Man (1976)
• The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
• Portnoy's Complaint (1976)
• The Ritz (1976)
• W.C. Fields and Me (1976)
• A Piece of the Action (1977)
• Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
• Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)
• Greased Lightning (1977)
• Julia (1977)
• Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
• The Gauntlet (1977)
• The Sentinel (1977)
• Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
• Bloodbrothers (1978)
• California Suite (1978)
• Convoy (1978)
• The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
• Movie Movie (1978)
• Same Time, Next Year (1978)
• The Wiz (1978)
• Agatha (1979)
• Chapter Two (1979)
• Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
• The Great Santini (1979)
• Hair (1979)
• Scavenger Hunt (1979)
• The Bell Jar (1979)
• The Promise (1979)

1980s

• Any Which Way You Can (1980)
• Bronco Billy (1980)
• The Dogs of War (1980)
• Fame (1980)
• Heaven's Gate (1980)
• The Jazz Singer (1980)
• The Last Married Couple in America (1980)
• Little Miss Marker (1980)
• The Long Riders (1980)
• The Nude Bomb (1980)
• Somewhere in Time (1980)
• The Stunt Man (1980)
• Those Lips, Those Eyes (1980)
• Clash of the Titans (1981)
• Endless Love (1981)
• For Your Eyes Only (1981)
• The Four Seasons (1981)
• Hard Country (1981)
• On Golden Pond (1981)
• The Funhouse (1981)
• Deathtrap (1982)
• Evil Under the Sun (1982)
• Firefox (1982)
• Honkytonk Man (1982)
• I, The Jury (1982)
• My Favorite Year (1982)
• Breathless (1983)
• Cross Creek (1983)
• Eddie Macon's Run (1983)

• Gorky Park (1983)
• High Road to China (1983)
• Never Say Never Again (1983)
• The Sting II (1983)
• Sudden Impact (1983)
• Champions (1984)
• City Heat (1984)
• Harry & Son (1984)
• Splash (1984)
• The River (1984)
• Tightrope (1984)
• Pale Rider (1985)
• Best Shot (1986)
• Heartbreak Ridge (1986)
• Platoon (1986)
• Hamburger Hill (1987)
• Orphans (1987)
• The Believers (1987)
• The Untouchables (1987)
• Bird (1988)
• Colors (1988)
• The Dead Pool (1988)
• Mississippi Burning (1988)
• Moonwalker (1988)
• The Accused (1988)
• Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser (1988)
• Great Balls of Fire! (1989)
• Night Visitor (1989)
• Pink Cadillac (1989)

1990s

• White Hunter Black Heart (1990)
• Reversal of Fortune (1990)
• Funny About Love (1990)
• State of Grace (1990)
• The Field (1990)
• The Rookie (1990)
• FX2 (1991)
• Unforgiven (1992)

• In the Line of Fire (1993)
• A Perfect World (1993)
• The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
• The Stars Fell on Henrietta (1995)
• The Old Curiosity Shop (1995)
• Absolute Power (1997)
• True Crime (1999)

2000s

• Space Cowboys (2000)

• Mystic River (2003)

2010s

• J. Edgar (2011)

Collaborating directors

• Clint Eastwood
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Stanley Kubrick
• Ridley Scott
• Sidney Lumet
• Elia Kazan
• John Schlesinger
• George Roy Hill
• Robert Altman
• William Friedkin
• Arthur Penn
• Miloš Forman
• Peter Yates

• Michael Curtiz
• Ron Howard
• Joshua Logan
• John Boorman
• Don Siegel
• Vincente Minnelli
• Alan J. Pakula
• Herbert Ross
• François Truffaut
• Buddy Van Horn
• Richard Benjamin

Collaborating producers

• Clint Eastwood
• Jack L. Warner
• Hal B. Wallis
• Tennessee Williams
• Philip D'Antoni
• Tony Bill
• Stanley Kubrick
• Martin Bregman

• Samuel Z. Arkoff
• Walter Hill
• Ray Harryhausen
• Richard D. Zanuck
• Andrew Lazar
• Robert Lorenz
• Jay Presson Allen
• Tom Rooker
• David Valdes
• Bob Daley
• Jon Kilik

Best Picture Winners

• Casablanca (1942)
• My Fair Lady (1964)
• The Sting (1973)
• Ordinary People (1980)
• Platoon (1986)
• Unforgiven (1992)

Further reading

• Block, Alex Ben (May 16, 2011). "Secrets Behind Hollywood's Greatest Movie Posters". The Hollywood Reporter. This feature article about Gold's career has a link to fourteen images of his posters.
• Murphy, Mekado (December 3, 2010). "Poster Master With a Cool Hand". The New York Times. Article on Gold on the occasion of a book about his art.
• Trodson, Lars (October 26, 2009). "The Gold Standard: Roundtable Pictures Interviews Legendary Movie Poster Designer Bill Gold". Roundtable Pictures, Inc.
• American Film Institute (February 12, 2016). "Meet Bill Gold: The Man Behind the Most Iconic Movie Posters Ever". The New York Times. Bill Gold reflects on his art and his career.

External links

• 1994 Hollywood Reporter Lifetime Achievement Award video
• Meet Bill Gold: The Man Behind the Most Iconic Movie Posters Ever