18 August 2025 , 07:23
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James Bond star Joe Caroff has died aged 103, his sons confirmed. The unsung hero was known for creating the iconic 007 gun logo
James Bond star Joe Caroff has died aged 103, his sons have confirmed. The graphic designer was known for creating the iconic 007 gun logo and worked on the film posters for West Side Story and The Beatles’ hit movie, A Hard Day’s Night.
Joe’s sons, Michael and Peter, told The New York Times that the star died in hospice care in his Manhattan home on Sunday, a day before his 104th birthday.
Back in 1962, Joe was tasked with creating a letterhead for a publicity release for Dr. No - the first Bond film. Joe also worked on Last Tango in Paris, Manhattan, Cabaret and many more iconic projects.
His name went unknown for many years despite being extremely recognisable. “That he was unknown is shocking,” co-chairman emeritus of the Master of Fine Arts Design program at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, Mr. Heller, said in a recent interview.
When Joe was tasked with creating the letterhead for Dr. No (1962), he didn’t find the 007 agent’s Walther PPK pistol to be visually appealing. He sketched the numbers 007 and added pencilled lines above and below as a guide but soon noticed that the upper guideline looked like an elongated barrel of a gun extending from the number seven.
It wasn’t long before he perfected the most recognised symbol in cinema. “I knew that 007 meant license to kill; that, I think, at an unconscious level, was the reason I knew the gun had to be in the logo,” he said in By Design: The Joe Caroff Story in 2022.
Despite creating the legendary logo, the family were ’never paid any royalties’. It was said the rate for a letterhead logo was $300 at the time, without film credits or profit-sharing.
"It was like a little publicity piece for me," he said.
“My only regrets are that they never paid any royalties for any of these things that were done in those days,” Joe’s wife, Phyllis Caroff added in the documentary. “We would have been rich.”
Joe revealed he never saved the original sketches and renders over the years. "Probably not a smart thing to do, but I never attached what I was doing to any greatness," he admitted.
"I was just working, period. I was just being an artist."
EON Productions and former franchise bosses Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson gave him an Omega watch with a 007 graving for his 100th birthday.
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