Ghostbusters logo artist, Michael Gross, dies
Michael Gross, the artist responsible for one of the 80s most iconic and enduring logos - the Ghostbusters - has died of cancer aged 70.
The 70 year-old, who famously said his goal in life was "to have fun and do new things”, passed away at his California home on Monday, having received a terminal diagnosis in 2014.
The New York-born artist, illustrator, film producer and personal designer will be forever synonymous with the much loved 80s films series The Ghostbusters for which he designed what is one of the most famous film logos ever created.
Gross created the drawing of the confused-looking spirit caught in the middle of a red circle with a slash through it for the first film and adapted it for the 1989 follow up. It has since come to be a ubiquitous symbol in American pop culture.
It placed first, beating out the Chrysler Building, when the Pratt Institute ran a survey for their thoughts on the 125 most admired icons created by its alumni and faculty.
The legacy of the logo is also evident in the fact that it is rumoured to be adapted and used for the forthcoming Ghostbuster film which is scheduled for a 2016 release.
Gross’s career had many other prestigious highlights and saw him hold positions such as John Lennon's personal designer, senior designer for the 1968 Olympics and art director for National Lampoon magazine.
It was his work with National Lampoon magazine which comes a close second to his design for the Ghostbusters logo. In 1973 he created a cover for the magazine featuring a frightened-looking dog on the cover with a gun to its head and the words, "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog."
In 2005, the American Society of Magazine Editors rated it one of the 40 greatest covers of all time.
His recent battle with cancer was not his first having survived an earlier fight with the illness 30 years before. This time however he decided to forgo any life-extending efforts and announced to the AP last year that he would "go down fighting" and launched a darkly comic anti-cancer campaign.
This involved dozens of paintings and drawings from fellow artists and himself, each featuring a hand with a raised middle finger. Underneath each drawing he put the words "Flip Cancer."