Frank McCarthy

Who was Frank McCarthy?

Frank McCarthy was a prolific American artist and realist painter renowned for advertisements, magazine artwork, paperback covers, film posters, and paintings of the American West.

Born in New York City, he studied under George Bridgman and Reginald Marsh at the Art Students League of New York then attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

McCarthy began his art career as a commercial illustrator, opening his own studio in 1948. He did illustrations for most of the paperback book publishers, magazines, including Colliers, Argosy, and True, movie companies, and advertisements.

Among McCarthy's film poster work were The Ten Commandments, The Great Escape, The Train, The Glory Guys, The Dirty Dozen, Dark of the Sun, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Once Upon a Time in the West, and in conjunction with Robert McGinnis Thunderball and You Only Live Twice.

McCarthy left the commercial art world in 1968 in order to concentrate on Western paintings. In 1975 he was invited to join the Cowboy Artists of America. His painting, "Long Hard Ride" was used by The Marshall Tucker Band in 1976 for the cover of their fifth studio album by the same name.