William Reynold Brown (October 18, 1917 – August 24, 1991) was an American realist artist who painted many Hollywood film posters. He was also briefly active as a comics artist.
He attended Alhambra High School and refined his drawing under his teacher Lester Bonar.[3] A talented artist, Brown met cartoonist Hal Forrest around 1936-37. Forrest hired Brown to ink (uncredited) Forrest's comic stripTailspin Tommy.[4]Norman Rockwell's sister was a teacher at Alhambra High, and Brown later met Rockwell who advised him to leave cartooning if he wanted to be an illustrator.[4] Brown subsequently won a scholarship to the Otis Art Institute.
He suffered a severe stroke in 1976 that left his left side paralyzed and ended his commercial work.[10] Brown and his family moved to Dawes County, Nebraska; with his wife's help, Brown continued to paint landscapes until his death in 1991.
In 1994, Mel Bucklin's documentary about Reynold Brown entitled The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters was broadcast on U.S. public television.[11] A book reproducing many of Brown's artworks, Reynold Brown: A Life in Pictures, was published in 2009.[9]
^Brown's artwork on film posters was unsigned. Brown's own records of the film posters on which he worked have been posted by his son, Franz Brown. See "Movie Campaigns, A Listing". Retrieved 2013-03-12.
^"Our Story". si-la.org. Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
^ abZimmer, Daniel; Hornung, David J. (2009). Reynold Brown: A Life in Pictures. St. Louis: The Illustrated Press. ISBN9780982004128. OCLC437298876.
^Bogousslavsky, Julien; Boller, François (2005). Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists. Karger. p. 8.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Reynold Brown.
Horberg, William (May 9, 2009). "Masters of Illustration Art - Reynold Brown". An appreciation of Brown's work on the occasion of the publication of Reynold Brown: A Life In Pictures (2009); Horberg is a film producer.
