John Conrad Berkey, born on August 13, 1932, and who passed away on April 29, 2008, gained recognition as an artist for his science fiction book cover illustrations. Among his works, he created at least eleven pieces for Star Wars, notably the cover art for the novelization of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle video game.
Berkey's artistic talents extended to creating theatrical release posters for several major motion pictures, including The Towering Inferno in 1974, the 1976 remake of King Kong, Orca the Killer Whale in 1977, Meteor in 1979, Black Stallion also in 1979, Superman III in 1983, and the European release of Dune in 1984. He turned down an offer from Stanley Kubrick to contribute to the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In 1975, George Lucas, a young filmmaker, acquired several of Berkey's science fiction artworks. These paintings served as visual aids as Lucas presented his concepts for a new space fantasy film, The Star Wars, to film studios. One particular painting depicted a rocket-plane descending through space towards a massive mechanical planet (this image had previously been used as cover art for the 1972 reprint of Star Science Fiction Stories No.4, a short story anthology). It is believed that this specific painting significantly influenced the production design of Star Wars, inspiring the film's lead concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie, and model maker Colin Cantwell. Cantwell's initial designs for the Death Star battle station shared a striking resemblance to Berkey's painting. Furthermore, other Star Wars spacecraft, such as Star Destroyers, may have been influenced by Berkey's designs, which featured naval-style ships with sleek hulls and conning towers adorned with antennae.
In 1976, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox commissioned Berkey to create some of the earliest poster art for Star Wars. Among his contributions was a painting featuring Luke Skywalker wielding a lightsaber, accompanied by the robots C-3PO and R2-D2, and a group of Imperial stormtroopers. In the background, a large figure of Darth Vader loomed, mirroring the composition of the theatrical poster artwork for Star Wars by Tom Jung and the Brothers Hildebrandt. When the novelization of the film, Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, was published, the UK edition from Sphere Books showcased cover art by Berkey (the US edition by Ballantine Books initially featured a cover by Ralph McQuarrie).
Another original painting by Berkey for Star Wars depicted the final battle over the Death Star from the film's concluding scenes. Reportedly, Berkey had never actually seen Star Wars, which is evident in his illustration of multiple Millennium Falcon spaceships (whereas the film only features one). In an interview, Berkey commented on the poster, stating, "It was the first time that I was asked to paint fictional space crafts not of my own design". This painting was released as a souvenir poster included with the initial release of the Star Wars Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by 20th Century Records.
Berkey's involvement with Star Wars concluded due to a conflict of interest arising from his work for Universal, a rival film studio, on the 1978 TV series Battlestar Galactica.
Berkey revisited the Star Wars universe in 1983 when he was commissioned to create the cover artwork for the Atari video game, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle.
In the year 1999, the Spectrum Award for Grand Master was bestowed upon John Berkey.
In 2004, John Berkey was welcomed into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Illustrators.
- Official website
- John Berkey on Wikipedia
- Bibliography of John Berkey on Internet Speculative Fiction Database