Per an obituary posted by his family, legendary illustrator Robert McGinnis passed away in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, on March 10, 2025. He was 99 years old. A prolific book cover and movie poster artist, McGinnis was probably best known for painting the key art for several James Bond films, including Thunderball (1965), Live and Let Die (1973), and the parody version of Casino Royale (1967), as well as Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Barbarella (1968), and A Fistful of Dynamite (1972).
McGinnis was particularly renowned for his portrayals of beautiful femmes fatales on the covers he provided for crime novels, an archetype dubbed the “McGinnis Woman” by fans and industry insiders. He remained active near the end of his life, and his work eventually extended to comics, with him providing covers for Titan’s Hard Case Crime imprint series Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini (2017-8), Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Electrified Tesla (2021), Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer (2018), Gun Honey (2021), and Gun Honey: Blood for Blood (2022).
Robert “Bob” Edward McGinnis was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 3, 1926. He enlisted in the military in 1944, where he served in the Merchant Marines until the war ended, and apprenticed at Walt Disney Studios, before studying fine art at Ohio State University. He began his career in advertising before signing on with Dell Publishing in 1958, painting covers for books by Richard Stark, among others. Breakfast at Tiffany’s marked his first film poster, and he also provided artwork for magazines like TIME, National Geographic, Good Housekeeping, and Reader’s Digest.
He provided some of the earliest covers for Marvel prose novels, when they branched into that market with Bantam Books. Additionally, he branched into credits design, creating the opening titles for the comedy western The Hallelujah Trail (1965). In 2004, he was approached by The Incredibles director Brad Bird to create a poster for the film, but it went unused by Disney. In McGinnis’s spare time, he painted landscapes, including depictions of the American West.
He was honored during his lifetime with an induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1993, and a Romantic Artist of the Year award from Romantic Times magazine in 1985. He was the subject of a documentary film, Robert McGinnis: Painting the Last Rose of Summer, in 2008, and his art was featured in several coffee table artbooks. He was married to artist Ferne Mitchell, his college sweetheart, for 75 years, until her death, and is survived by their three children, three grandchildren, and a brother, David McGinnis.
