The Star Wars galaxy lost another star yesterday, October 31 (Halloween), when famous artist Greg Hildebrandt died after a months-long struggle with a breathing problem that was a side effect of heart medication he had been taking. His wife, Jean Scrocco, shared the news on Facebook in a post that began, “The light has gone out in my life.” We want to share our condolences with Jean and everyone else who knew him.
Greg and his twin brother Tim, who died of complications from diabetes in 2006, were born in Detroit, Michigan on January 23, 1939. They aspired to work as Disney animators, and while they never realized that dream, they made a major mark in the science-fiction and fantasy genre with their incredible paintings for a 1976 The Lord of the Rings calendar. (Unfortunately, they were not invited to work on Ralph Bakshi’s animated adaptation of half of the novel.)
Between their work on the calendar celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous novel and a concept poster they had created for Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein, they caught the eye of executives at 20th Century Fox, who hired the pair to create what became known as the “Style B” Star Wars poster that was to be used on billboards in the UK.
The brothers were given just 36 hours to produce their work, but they had a starting point in the form of Tom Jung’s “Style A” poster, which had been deemed “too dark” by executives at Fox. Like Jung’s poster, it featured Luke Skywalker holding a lightsaber aloft with Princess Leia below him, bearing her gun. C-3PO and R2-D2 stand behind them on the right, while the rocky landscape gives way on the left to some buildings on Tatooine. A tableau of stars provides a backdrop, with a fleet of X-Wings en route to the Death Star and Darth Vader looming menacingly over our heroes.
The phenomenal worldwide success of Star Wars provided a springboard for the brothers to take on other work together, including the poster for the successful mythological fantasy movie Clash of the Titans in 1981. After that project, however, they began pursuing separate careers, although they continued to do a lot of work in the science-fiction and fantasy genres, contributing their talents to magazine covers, cover and interior art for many novels, calendars, and more. They reunited in 1993 to work on projects for Stan Lee at Marvel Comics.
Tim and Greg won numerous awards together and singly over their careers. Greg had two daughters and a son from his first marriage to Diana F. Stankowski; he married Jean Scrocco in 2009.