Pictured is a design for the poster for the James Bond movie, ‘A View to a Kill’. It was created by the late Eric Pulford (1915-2005).

An outstanding artist, Eric was managing director of the London advertising agency Downtons and produced work for Columbia, Rank, United Artists and Disney.

During his career he was to create the classic Sean Connery gun-across-chest pose.

Eric is pictured here holding the finished poster. It was used to promote the famous Bond movie, ‘From Russia with Love’.

He drew various figures from the ‘still’ taken of Sean Connery and told me many years ago: “It was my idea to put the gun in the hand. When the producer Albert Broccoli saw the series of images I had drawn, he couldn’t decide which one to use and left the final decision to me. The one you see is the one I chose.”

He explained that the finished poster was a joint effort. “I came up with the ideas, but used other artists to finish them off.”

Eric and the late Renato Fratini painted the ‘From Russia With Love’ poster.

Once the poster was published the classic Bond pose was copied by other artists all over the world.

A gentle person, Eric loved having his family around him. He retired to Dorset, with his wife Alma, in 1986 to be near the sea so he could enjoy his favourite hobby, sailing. Eric often talked of his days in the advertising world. He was a pioneer of his time, developing poster advertising by painstakingly creating the artwork by hand in a newly developing film industry.

He created around five hundred posters and some of his most notable works aside from Bond include: ‘Oliver Twist’ (1948),’ Reach for the Sky’ (1956), the later Norman Wisdom comedies, the “Doctor” films and “Carry Ons.” He won a US poster award for his design for Disney’s ‘The Island At the Top of the World’ (1973).

(Janine is Eric’s daughter-in-law)