Peter Strausfeld

Peter Strausfeld (14 September 1910 – 9 July 1980) was a German-born British artist, illustrator and animator, particularly known for his film posters. For 33 years, from 1947 until his death, he created hand-printed linocut posters for each film shown at the three-screen Academy Cinema, London's leading art house cinema.

Early life Strausfeld was born in Cologne in September 1910. An exhibit of Strausfeld's work for the Academy Cinema, Art for Art House: The Posters of Peter Strausfeld, was shown at the Poster House from November 13, 2025 – April 12, 2026.

Strausfeld created all of the images in linocut or woodcut and they appeared in many London Underground stations. He created posters for over 300 different films, all printed by hand in runs of up to 100, rising to 300 in the mid-1970s, and as most were used in Underground stations, few copies survive. Hoellering was usually the director or producer.

In 1951, he was the production designer for the film Murder in the Cathedral, directed and produced by Hoellering, for which Strausfeld (as Peter Pendrey) won the Special Prize for the best production design at the 12th Venice International Film Festival.

From 1959 to 1980, Strausfeld lectured at Brighton College of Art and then in Brighton Polytechnic's department of graphics. and he sometimes used the pseudonym Peter Pendrey.

Strausfeld died in Brighton in 1980.