1 day ago
9
Arts|Robert E. McGinnis, Whose Lusty Illustrations Defined an Era, Dies at 99
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/arts/robert-e-mcginnis-dead.html
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Robert E. McGinnis, an illustrator whose lusty, photorealistic artwork of curvaceous women adorned more than 1,200 pulp paperbacks, as well as classic movie posters for “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” featuring Audrey Hepburn with a cigarette holder, and James Bond adventures including “Thunderball,” died on March 10 at his home in Old Greenwich, Conn. He was 99.
His family confirmed the death.
Mr. McGinnis’s female figures from the 1960s and ’70s flaunted a bold sexuality, often in a state of semi undress, whether on the covers of detective novels by John D. MacDonald or on posters for movies like “Barbarella” (1968), with a bikini-clad Jane Fonda, or Bond films starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore.
Image
Beginning in 1958, he painted book covers for espionage, crime, Western, fantasy and other genre series — generally cheap paperbacks meant to grab a male reader’s eye in a drugstore, only to be quickly read and discarded.
