Artist Leo Dillon died on 26 May 2012, of complications of surgery for lung cancer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 2 March 1933, he was one half of a husband-and-wife artist team with Diane Dillon (née Sorber), who survives him. The Dillons met at the Parsons School of Design, from which they both graduated in 1956.
Locus reports that “they are the only artist team to jointly win a Hugo for Best Professional Artist (1971). They have worked extensively in various fields of commercial art, creating album covers, holiday cards, movie posters, advertising, and children’s books. They also illustrated numerous SF novels, notably many covers for Ace Books in the 1960s, including many of the Ace Specials, and are also known for their iconic cover and interior illustrations of Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions anthology. Their work in the SF field became less frequent after 1972.”
Their other awards include the Judges’ Choice Balrog in 1982, the Spectrum Grand Master Award in 1997, and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. They were nominated for another four Hugos and ten Chesley Awards. They also won Caldecott Medals for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears (1976) and Ashanti to Zulu (1977). Their work was collected in The Art of Leo & Diane Dillon (1981).
Tor Art Director Irene Gallo has a memorial with illustrations of the Dillons’ work here.
For more information, see his ISFDb entry and his Wikipedia entry.
Edited 31 May to add: This New York Times obituary includes a slide show of some Dillon art.