Michael J. Deas (born 1956) is an American painter and illustrator. He designed 16 commemorative stamps for the United States Postal Service, featuring the images of

James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, '' Rebel Without a Caus ...

, Marilyn Monroe,

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Ins ...

, Carey Grant, Edgar Allan Poe and other people. Deas was awarded five medals by the Society of Illustrators, including two gold medals for

U.S. postage stamp Postal service in the United States began with the delivery of stampless letters whose cost was borne by the receiving person, later encompassed pre-paid letters carried by private mail carriers and provisional post offices, and culminated in a ...

illustrations. He painted the iconic

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mult ...

logo, and also worked for ''

Reader’s Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

'', Random House and Chiat/Day. In addition to his artwork, Deas is a noted authority on Edgar Allan Poe. His 1989 book, ''The Portraits & Daguerreotypes of Edgar Allan Poe'', published by the University of Virginia, documents over 70 historic images of the poet and is now considered a standard reference work. In 2004, Deas was consulted by the

Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, located at 203 North Amity St. in Baltimore, Maryland, is the former home of American writer Edgar Allan Poe in the 1830s. The small unassuming structure, which was opened as a writer's house museum in 1949, ...

and was instrumental in identifying a Poe daguerreotype, stolen from the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library, that appeared on ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people (g ...

''.

Selected works

*''Earthbound'' (cover art) by

Richard Matheson Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science ficti ...

*''Interview with the Vampire'' (cover art) by

Anne Rice Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature. She was best known for her series of novels '' The Vampire Chronicles'' ...

*''Legends of Hollywood'' series *''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published Weekly newspaper, weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New ...

'' (cover art), Special Issue, July 7, 2003

References

External links

Official websitePBS documentary on Deas' American Postal Stamps
* ttps://www.nola.com/homegarden/2009/09/post_65.html Quarters' lighting is perfect for artist Michael Deas, ''The Times-Picayune'
Entry
from KnowLA (Encyclopedia of Louisiana) 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists American illustrators Columbia Pictures 1956 births Living people 20th-century American male artists {{US-illustrator-stub