The illustrator and poster artist Léo Kouper, who was particularly famous for his work on Charlie Chaplin's film releases in the 1950s, died on Monday February 8 at the age of 94 at his Parisian home, his daughter Corinne Kouper told AFP.
Born in 1926 in Paris, Léo Kouper learned his trade from poster artist Hervé Morvan (1917-1980). Over the course of his career, he gained international fame thanks to his cinema posters, but also produced posters for the theatre and advertising. A look back at his career through five posters.
Léo Kouper began his career directing posters for French films, including The greatest sin in the world of Gilles Grangier in 1951 or My husband is wonderful by André Hunebelle in 1953, but it was the posters of Charlie Chaplin's film releases in the 1950s that made him famous.
1. The poster of the film Modern Times commissioned in 1954 by Les Artistes Associés for the release of the film is very much appreciated by Charlie Chaplin.
2. Léo Kouper redesigns posters for several Charlie Chaplin films, including The Gold Rush , The Lights of the City and The Dictator .
3. In 1974, the illustrator was rewarded by the Cannes Film Festival for his poster for the film Emmanuelle of Just Jaeckin.
4. The Miraculous One by Jean-Pierre Mocky (1987). Léo Kouper made several posters of the director's films, including The Mentor and the Toroto File .
5. In 2015, Léo Kouper made this drawing after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Charlie Chaplin's emblematic hat is transformed into a target and pierced with bullets.
