William Sully

Sully, William (Bill)
13 May 1917 - 30 August 2012
Aged 95 Years Born in East Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania, to John/Josephine (Perrone) Sully, who emigrated to the U.S. from Ravello, Italy. He left high school in 11th grade to seek work during the Depression, and found his first job as a sign painter at $10 per week. He played catcher for a single-A minor league baseball team in PA, and remained a loyal New York Yankees fan for the rest of his life. While working as a painter in Washington, DC, he met F.D.R. while painting signs for his inauguration. As a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, he created art for training manuals for pilots, bombardiers, and navigators. While there he created portraits of many famous actors and actresses - including Greer Garson, Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Loretta Young, Clark Gable and many others. Copies of these were published in the "Stars and Stripes" military newspaper. Joan Crawford later invited him to dinner at her home in Hollywood. After the war, he studied art in Paris (the Grand Chaumiere school) on the G.I. Bill, where he met Irene Coppers, who he later married while living in Canada in 1954. He developed an enduring love for the City of Lights, where he would spend long summer vacations throughout his 80s. He worked for the Loew's theater chain doing poster art, and as an illustrator for several magazines and advertising agencies in Canada during the 1950s. After moving back to the U.S. with his wife and young son in the early 1960s, he landed his first job in the motion-picture industry as an illustrator. As such, he worked on such well-known films as "Fate Is The Hunter", "Hello Dolly", "Doctor Doolittle", "Flight of the Phoenix", "The Sand Pebbles", "Star Trek - The Motion Picture", "Catch-22", and over forty others. He was art director on several films, the last being the Woody Guthrie bio-pic "Bound for Glory" in 1976. He designed the ape masks for the original "Planet of the Apes" films in the late 1960s and early 1970s, for which a colleague won an Academy Award. He also created art for Disney World's Epcot Center in the 1970s. In the 2000s, he wrote a script for a movie featuring the famous French model of the 1920s-30s, "Kiki", who he met while in Paris in the 1950s. He was fiercely independent, remained very active throughout his life (he was frequently seen in the batting cages in Lakewood, hitting 75-mph fastballs until the age of 93), and his mind remained crystal clear until the very end. His stories about the movie industry at family gatherings were always thoroughly enjoyed. He will always be missed by those he leaves behind. He had a long, full, and incredibly interesting life. He was predeceased by his three brothers and his sister, son Gregory and ex-wife Irene. He is survived by his son Robert and grandchildren Kenneth, Naomi, Corinne and Brianna. Interment will be private. Any donations should go to the American Diabetes Association or the Prostate Cancer Foundation.