1. Ralph Idris Steadman was born on 15 May 1936 and is a British illustrator best known for his collaboration with the American writer Hunter S Thompson.
23 Facts About Ralph Steadman
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Ralph Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire to an English father, Lionel Raphael Ralph Steadman, and a Welsh mother, Gwendoline; the family moved to Wales towards the end of the Second World War.
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Ralph Steadman came from a lower middle class background; his father was a commercial traveller and his mother was a shop assistant at T J Hughes in Liverpool.
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Ralph Steadman took his first job at 16 as a RADAR Operator at the De Havilland aircraft factory in the border town of Broughton near Chester but only remained for nine months, finding factory life repetitive and dull, and becoming fed up with fellow employees, citing persistent cruel practical jokes ; however, whilst there he became skilled in technical drawing, thus sowing the seeds of his future career.
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Ralph Steadman returned to England after National Service in 1954 and found work in London as a cartoonist.
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Ralph Steadman accompanied Thompson to the Kentucky Derby for an article for the magazine Scanlan's, to the Honolulu Marathon for the magazine Running, and illustrated both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.
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Ralph Steadman has expressed regret at selling the original illustrations for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at the advice of his agent to Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner for the sum of $75, a fraction of their later value.
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Ralph Steadman has drawn album covers for numerous music artists, including the Who, Exodus, Frank Zappa and Ambrosia, and the lead banner for the gonzo journalism website GonzoToday.
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In 1985, Ralph Steadman designed a set of four British postage stamps to commemorate the appearance that year of Halley's Comet.
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Ralph Steadman has illustrated Will Self's column in The Independent newspaper.
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Ralph Steadman has contributed to the BirdLife International's Preventing Extinctions programme with an image of critically endangered northern bald ibis.
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In 2014, Ralph Steadman created the artwork for a series of limited edition Breaking Bad SteelBook DVDs.
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In 2016 Ralph Steadman did the cover art for Anthony Bourdain's Appetites: A Cookbook.
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In 2017, Ralph Steadman penned the artwork for Travis Scott and Quavo's joint project Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho.
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In 2019, Ralph Steadman created the artwork for Taylor Mac's Broadway show Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus.
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In 2020, Steadman created the artwork for the documentary film Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb which follows journalist Hunter S Thompson and his 1970 campaign for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado.
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Ralph Steadman has designed label art for Flying Dog beer and designed the V logo used on Flying Dog's packaging since 1995.
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In 1980, Ralph Steadman wrote a 57-second song "Sweetest Love " for an album he was illustrating, Miniatures: A Sequence of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces, on Pipe Records.
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In 1999, Ralph Steadman wrote the lyrics for Richard Harvey's choral album Plague and the Moonflower, on Altus Records.
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Also in 1999, Ralph Steadman released an anthology album of his "favourite music", on EMI Records, entitled I Like It.
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In 2011, Ralph Steadman began running prose and poetry in Kotori Magazine.
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Ralph Steadman was voted Illustrator of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1979.
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Ralph Steadman is a patron of the Association of Illustrators.