John Henry Alvin (1948 – 2008) was an American cinematic artist and painter who illustrated many movie posters. Alvin created posters and key art for more than 135 films, beginning with the poster for Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles. His style of art became known as Alvinesque by friends and colleagues in the entertainment industry.
Alvin's work includes the movie posters for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, Gremlins, The Goonies, The Color Purple, The Little Mermaid, Batman Returns, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Space Jam, The Emperor's New Groove, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action.[1] He also created the anniversary posters for Star Wars.
John Alvin was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts. His parents were in the United States military and the family was relocated often.
The Alvins settled permanently in the area of Monterey, California, where Alvin graduated from Pacific Grove High School in 1966.
His early interest in movie posters reportedly began with movie advertisements in the Sunday newspaper.
Alvin graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles in 1971 and began work as a freelance artist.
Alvin's first official movie art campaign was the poster for Blazing Saddles, directed by Mel Brooks. Alvin, who was working as an animator at an animation studio at the time, was invited to work on the Blazing Saddles poster by a friend.
Alvin took an unusual path when designing the movie poster. He designed a serious movie poster, which incorporated unusual and quirky elements from the film. For example, in the poster, Alvin depicts Mel Brooks, who plays a Yiddish-speaking Native American chief in the film, wearing a headdress inscribed with the phrase, Kosher for Passover.
Alvin's work on Blazing Saddles was liked by Mel Brooks, as well as by others in the industry. He went on to work on a number of Brooks' later films, including Young Frankenstein, which was also released in 1974.
Alvine also did the poster for Steven Spielberg's 1982 film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It shows E.T.'s finger touching the finger of his human friend, Elliott, finger tip to finger tip. The fingers create a glow where they touch. The idea for the poster was reportedly suggested by Spielberg, and was inspired by Michelangelo's painting, The Creation of Adam. Alvin used his daughter as the human hand model for the poster.
Alvin created artwork for more than 135 film campaigns over the span of three decades. His work for such film studios as New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., Disney Studios and Lucasfilm, include Blade Runner, Cocoon, The Lost Boys, Predator, The Princess Bride, Gremlins, The Goonies, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Jurassic Park, and Space Jam. He also created the anniversary posters and other artwork for the 30th-anniversary Star Wars Celebration.
In later years, he created posters for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter film series and Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean films. According to John Sabel, an advertising executive at Walt Disney Pictures who often worked with Alvin, "There was a reason why The Lion King did the numbers that it did... There was a reason why 'Hunchback' became a big success. It's because of the images that were produced, and a lot of those were John Alvin's paintings."
Alvin's poster for the 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise was selected by the National Collection of Fine Arts at the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Modern Art to be included in "Images of an Era (1945–1975)", a collection of posters that toured Europe as part of the U.S. Bicentennial.
In later years, Alvin focused more on cinematic fine art as the importance of movie posters was usurped by newer forms of digital advertising. Alvin's fine art portfolio centered on movies artistically, rather than on advertising.
The Art of John Alvin, a book collecting a large portfolio of his work by Andrea Alvin, was published on August 26, 2014, by Titan Books.
Alvin met his wife Andrea at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where they were both students. They had one child, actress Farah Alvin.
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John Alvin was one in a million. Thank you Michel for posting such an in depth sampling of John's best work. He was a dear friend and wonderful human being. He is missed greatly by his wife Andrea Alvin, daughter Farrah Alvin and many, many friends who were fortunate to know him.-Tom Nikosey
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