Design me a Poster, The Outlaw Josey Wales, from Camera to concept

Design me a Poster, The Outlaw Josey Wales, from Camera to concept

The late designer Bill Gold had enjoyed a long relationship with Clint, which began with Dirty Harry  (1971), and lasted until J.Edgar (2011). Whilst the posters are often credited to Bill Gold, in most instances there is usually a fine artistic team behind both the concept and the canvas. Taking one of Clint’s most icon film posters, The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), the Archive takes a little look at the creative process and the team behind it.

Bill Gold

Bill Gold began his professional design career in 1941, in the advertising department of Warner Bros. His first poster was for the James Cagney musical feature film Yankee Doodle Dandy in 1942, followed soon after by the poster for Casablanca. He was then drafted into the US Army where he was involved in the production of training films. Following his discharge in 1946, he resumed his career designing posters for Warner Bros. where he became head of poster design in 1947. 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. Bill retired in 2003. A limited-edition, oversized one-volume retrospective was published in January 2011 in coordination with his 90th birthday. The same year, Gold came out of retirement when he agreed to create posters for Clint's film, J. Edgar. Bill Gold died on 20th May 2018, aged 97, at Greenwich Hospital from complications of Alzheimer's disease.

Charlie Gold

In 1959 his brother Charlie joined him in the business, and they formed BG Charles to do the film trailers and work as photographer. 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 age 75 on December 25th, 2003.

Below: A couple of the rare photos taken for the Josey Wales publicity campaign 

Roy Andersen

Roy was born in Chicago in 1930 and was known as a western painter. He was known for his paintings of Crow, Cheyenne, and Apache Indians. He began his career living in Chicago and New York and working as an illustrator. He did numerous covers for Time Magazine including portraits of Albert Einstein and Prince Fahd. He also did illustrations for National Geographic magazine, and did a stamp series on Dogs and American Horses, and in 1984 and 1985, won Stamp of the Year Award. As a muralist, he has filled commissions for the National Park Service, the Royal Saudi Naval Headquarters, and the E.E. Fogelson Visitor Centre at Pecos National Monument in New Mexico.

To pursue his talent for painting, Roy Anderson went West, living in Arizona and settling in Cave Creek. In 1990, he was voted official artist for Scottsdale's Parada del Sol, the "world's largest" horse-drawn parade commemorating the Old West.

Andersen grew up on an apple farm in New Hampshire and learned about Indian customs from his many hours spent at the Chicago Museum of Natural History. He is meticulous about being historically accurate in his paintings. Of him it was written: "There are no 'happy accidents' in an Andersen painting. He has a knowledge of his subject that is attained only through extensive research. You will not find an Apache medicine bag around a Sioux warrior's neck nor a Cheyenne carrying a rifle that is a bit too 'modern'. What you will see is accuracy, an almost uncanny sense of composition and colour harmony and a strength of drawing that is remarkable. "

His training is from the Chicago Academy of Fine Art and the Art Center School of Los Angeles.

Influenced by a cowboy uncle from Nebraska, he often painted cowboy scenes that his art teachers said were passe. For thirty years, he was an illustrator for National Geographic, Time magazine and Sports Illustrated and lived in New York and Chicago.

Later in his life he moved and lived in Arizona and Texas. In 1989, he was voted membership into the Cowboy Artists of America, a group from whom he has received many awards. He did a variety of commissioned work, a notable example being the movie poster for The Outlaw Josey Wales, which he later said was one of his proudest and favourite assignments.  Andersen died on April 25th, 2019. 

Below: Another photo from the sessions taken for the advertising campaign 

Below: The Half Sheet poster design, which was also used on the 60" x 40" and a few photos taken for the Josey Wales advertising campaign - 2 of these photos were used in the artwork concept.

On Josey Wales:

In his 2011 book, Bill Gold spoke about how they achieved the poster designs for The Outlaw Josey Wales:

“When we started out on this campaign, we looked at a couple of shots from the still books of Clint Eastwood standing in his hat holding his guns upright in the foreground, outdoor shots, but I had this idea of having Clint full-face looking straight into the lens – just the head, without a hat – and having him scream and act vicious. My brother Charlie, who was working with Clint on the West Coast, on the trailer and presenting to him what we were doing, he said to me: ‘I don’t know. He doesn’t like to do that… Clint doesn’t like to do grotesque things with his face.’ So I said, ‘Just try and get him to hold the guns close to his head, so it’s like protecting his face, and get him to scream: Yee-ahhh.’ 

Well, the next day, Charlie called me and said, ‘Okay, I got it. After two shots without him screaming, I finally said, ‘Come on, they’re after you. Yell at them. Scream.’ And he finally laughed and said, ‘Okay, I don’t normally do that with my face!’ I loved the photos, but I wanted to make this an illustration because the illustrator – Roy Andersen – could emphasise things the photo doesn’t do, with more of a movement to it. I loved the way it came out. Roy Andersen did Western subjects, so he was tailor-made for it. ‘An army of one.’ That was Dick Lederer or one of the other copywriters at Warners. The other painting – also by Roy Andersen - which has more action and superimposition in it and the horse underneath, was used for the international one sheet. I’m really proud of this Campaign.”  

Below: The 'screaming' Josey one sheet poster. Below that, Three incredible rare photos taken for the Josey campaign and which eventually formed the basis of the iconic artwork.