1. Thomas William Chantrell was a British illustrator and cinema poster artist.
21 Facts About Tom Chantrell
1. 2.
Tom Chantrell grew up in a family of girls, the youngest of nine children.
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Tom Chantrell left school aged 15 and went to Manchester Art College, but quickly became disillusioned and left soon after to enter employment.
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Unable to find any more work in Manchester, Tom Chantrell moved to London in 1934 to live with one of his sisters, Phyllis, in Hampstead.
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Tom Chantrell took up work at a printing company, where he developed his skills in silkscreen printing.
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Tom Chantrell continued with posters until World War II, when he was called up to military service.
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Tom Chantrell was demobbed in 1946, and he returned to work at Allardyce Palmer, now located on Kingsway in Holborn.
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Poster artist Tom Beauvais joined the company as Chantrell's assistant.
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In 1957 Tom Chantrell was made art director of Allardyce Palmer's new Entertainments Publicity Division in Screen House on Wardour Street, Soho.
10.
Tom Chantrell worked for two leading horror film production companies, Hammer Films and Amicus Productions, and for a few years worked as the "house artist" at Hammer, designing celebrated posters for films such as The Nanny and Taste the Blood of Dracula.
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Tom Chantrell designed many posters for the Carry On film comedy series.
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Some films were conceived as parodies of other contemporary movies, and Tom Chantrell correspondingly produced pastiche artwork of the original film poster.
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In 1977 Tom Chantrell was commissioned by 20th Century Fox to produce poster art for the British release of a space fantasy film, Star Wars.
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Several promotional posters had already been produced to advertise Star Wars prior to Chantrell's involvement; artist Tom Jung was initially commissioned by Fox to create a poster, which was used to advertise the USA release.
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Tom Chantrell was invited with his family to the film premiere, and he was given a pack of film stills and publicity photos to use as a reference for his painting.
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Tom Chantrell took one month to complete the poster, the longest he had ever worked on one poster.
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Tom Chantrell's poster depicts a trio of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford's characters brandishing blaster guns, in a style that was inspired by Frank McCarthy's poster for The Dirty Dozen.
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Tom Chantrell's posters were often produced prior to the film being made to raise money from investors, and he did not see the films he drew for; he would receive a plot line and a handful of stills and use friends and family for poses.
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Tom Chantrell moved into designing cover art for home video titles, but eventually was forced to retire.
20.
Tom Chantrell married his first wife, Alice, shortly before the start of his military service in 1940.
21.
Tom Chantrell died in hospital aged 84 on 15 July 2001 after suffering a heart attack.