Mort Drucker, 'Mad' magazine-defining cartoonist, dead at age 91

Mort Drucker, the cartoonist whose Hollywood caricatures came to define Mad magazine, died Wednesday night at age 91.

Mort Drucker, the cartoonist whose Hollywood caricatures came to define Mad magazine, died Wednesday night at age 91.

Drucker died at his home in Woodbury, N.Y., The Associated Press reported. Drucker’s cause of death is not yet known, though his daughter Laurie Bachner told the AP that he fell ill last week and had difficulty breathing.

The iconic caricaturist was not tested for coronavirus, according to the AP.

For more than five decades, Drucker worked at Mad, the cult-favourite magazine known for its lampooning of everything from Watergate to Star Wars.

Born in Brooklyn in 1929, Drucker joined Mad in 1956 and was a central part of its heyday in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.

“It felt like we had really made it when we were brutally mocked in the pages of @MADmagazine!” Mark Hamill tweeted Thursday, along with several images of Drucker’s "Re-hash of the Jeti.” “Truly a career highlight & when it came to spot-on, uncanny caricature, there was no finer artist than Mort Drucker. Simply the best...by far.”

It felt like we had really made it when we were brutally mocked in the pages of @MADmagazine! Truly a career highlight & when it came to spot-on, uncanny caricature, there was no finer artist than Mort Drucker. Simply the best...by far. #RIP pic.twitter.com/8J7Cshch0t — Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) April 9, 2020

Other Drucker fan favourites included 1963’s East Side Story and a parody of 1986’s Hannah And Her Sisters.

“The World has lost not just an extraordinary talent but a shining example of kindness, humility and humour, ” the National Cartoonists Society wrote in a tweet announcing Drucker’s death. “He was recognised for his work with the NCS Special Features Award, Reuben Award and induction into the Hall of Fame.”

Beyond his work for Mad, Drucker drew multiple covers for Time, including “Battle for the Senate” in 1970 which is now in the National Portrait Gallery. He drew his final published cartoons in 2008.

Drucker is survived by his wife, two daughters and three grandchildren. – Joseph Wilkinson/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service