/Film reported that international “Star Wars” poster artist Noriyoshi Ohrai has passed away at the age of 79 from complications of pneumonia. Here’s more from /Film’s article:
“Ohrai was born in 1935, and while he went to the Oil Painting Course at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, he dropped out in 1957, opting to work as a newspaper advertising editor as well as planning layouts and artwork for book publishing.
Wired UK says it wasn’t until 1973 that Ohrai relocated to Miyazaki, his wife’s hometown, and set up his own studio, where he created cover art for fantasy novels and manga tankobon for year. Then in 1980, Ohrai was tasked with creating the international poster for ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’
Ohrai’s ‘Star Wars’ artwork is not quite as well-known as Drew Struzan, but fans have seen plenty of these images before and likely even have some of them on their wall. And while his work is well-known by plenty, Ohrai himself was a very private person, revealing very few details of his personal life. But he’ll be missed just the same.
In addition to all his movie prints, Ohrai has hundreds of other pieces that have been used for book covers, including Japanese novelizations of the ‘Star Wars’ movies, as well as video games such as ‘Metal Gear Solid,’ ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms,’ ‘Dynasty Warriors,’ and tons more.”
To see more of Ohrai’s work, you can go here.