Roger Kastel (June 11, 1931 – November 8, 2023) was an American artist, known for creating the posters for the films '' Jaws'' (1975) and ''

The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic film, epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based o ...

'' (1980).

Personal life

Roger Kastel was born in

White Plains, New York White Plains is a city in and the county seat of Westchester County, New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, and a commercial hub of Westchester County, a densely populated suburban county that is home to about one milli ...

on June 11, 1931. He later lived in

Milford, Massachusetts Milford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 30,379 according to the 2020 census. First settled in 1662 and incorporated in 1780, Milford became a booming industrial and quarrying community in the 19th ...

, occasionally commuting to

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

to attend classes at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

. Kastel resided in Clove Valley in

Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later o ...

for 47 years, where in a 200-year old barn which he had converted into a studio, created both the ''Jaws'' and ''Empire Strikes Back'' illustrations. He was married to his wife, Grace Kastel, from 1957 until his death in 2023 and had two children, Beth Krebs and Matthew Kastel, who is the Stadium Manager for

Oriole Park at Camden Yards Oriole Park at Camden Yards, commonly known as Camden Yards, is a ballpark in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the home of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Baltimore Orioles, and the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the ...

, home of the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

and Past President of th
Stadium Managers Association
Roger Kastel died of

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

and

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, on November 8, 2023, at the age of 92.

Career

Kastel’s first professional job came at age 15, when he was hired to do a comic book to teach industrial workers how to do their trade. He was a student at the

while in high school, and then again after serving in the Navy during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. While in school, he studied under: Sidney E. Dickinson,

Edwin Dickinson Edwin Walter Dickinson (October 11, 1891 – December 2, 1978) was an American painter and draftsman best known for psychologically charged self-portraits, quickly painted landscapes, which he called ''premier coups'', and large, hauntingly enigma ...

Robert Beverly Hale Robert Beverly Hale (1901–November 14, 1985) was an artist, curator of American paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and instructor of artistic anatomy at the Art Students League of New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. He ...

, and Frank Reilly. In the 1960s Kastel did illustrations for western paperbacks and

Argosy Magazine ''Argosy'' was an American magazine, founded in 1882 as ''The Golden Argosy'', a children's weekly, edited by Frank Munsey and published by E. G. Rideout. Munsey took over as publisher when Rideout went bankrupt in 1883, and after many str ...

before signing an exclusive contract with

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...

in 1967. It was here Kastel had his greatest success, painting the iconic paperback book cover for ''Jaws'', which was later used as the movie poster for the 1974 Spielberg film. Kastel was also known for doing movie posters such as '' Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze'' (1975), '' The Great Train Robbery'' (1978), and his well-regarded movie poster for ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980). In addition, he illustrated several best-selling books, including several by

Jackie Collins Jacqueline Jill Collins (4 October 1937 – 19 September 2015) was an English romance novelist and actress. She moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and spent most of her career there. She wrote 32 novels, all of which appeared on The New York Times B ...

, and ''

Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ''Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values'' is a book by Robert M. Pirsig first published in 1974. It is a work of fictionalized autobiography and the first of Pirsig's texts in which he discusses his concept of Quali ...

'' (1974), and ''

The Great Santini ''The Great Santini'' is a 1979 American drama film written and directed by Lewis John Carlino. It is based on the 1976 novel by Pat Conroy. The film stars Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, and Michael O'Keefe. Plot A warrior without a war, Lt. ...

'' (1976).

References

External links

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Real Hollywood Thriller: Who Stole Jaws?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kastel, Roger 1932 births 2023 deaths American male artists People from White Plains, New York Deaths from kidney failure in the United States Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States