The poster for "Blazing Saddles," with its "strongly iconographic" imagery, typifies Alvin's work and resonated with movie fans, said Greg Kachel, a longtime friend.
The poster for "E.T." features the bony hand of the alien touching, tip to tip, the finger of his human buddy Elliott and creating a glow. Steven Spielberg is said to have suggested the image, a riff on Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam." The movie poster was a source of pride for Alvin, said his daughter, actress Farah Alvin of New York, who as a child served as the hand model for the poster.
In a career that spanned more than three decades, Alvin worked on such films as "Young Frankenstein," "Gremlins," "City Slickers," "Batman Returns," "The Color Purple" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. He also created anniversary posters for "Star Wars."
The work Alvin created was so distinctive it gave birth to an adjective, "Alvinesque," said his longtime friend and colleague Federico Tio, with whom Alvin worked on such Disney films as "Beauty and the Beast."
"John always brought this magical, almost romantic quality to his work," Tio said. "His sense of light and capturing a moment was spectacular. . . . Not only was he a great illustrator, he was a great thinker. He was so passionate about his craft."
Alvin contributed design ideas for the recent Disney movie "Enchanted." But with increased use of other forms of advertising, the movie poster has diminished in importance. In recent years Alvin began to focus more on fine art, creating art about the movies rather than advertising.
"With any of my cinematic art, I want the viewer to embrace and relive the magic that we all felt when we go to the movies," he said in a 2006 article in Art Business News.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Alvin is survived by a sister, Suzanne Alvin, of Seaside, Calif.
Services will be private. Memorial donations may be made to the heart program at the Foundation for Vassar Brothers Medical Center, 45 Reade Place, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601, (845) 454-8500.
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jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com
