STUTTGART, Germany — Graphic designer Heinz Edelmann, best known for his work as art director of the 1968 Beatles film "Yellow Submarine," has died, his former employer said. He was 75.
Edelmann died Tuesday afternoon in a Stuttgart hospital, according to the city's State Academy of Art and Design, where he had worked as a professor until 1999. No cause of death was given.
Born in Aussig in the former Czechoslovakia in 1934, Edelmann studied at the Duesseldorf Art Academy and became a freelance graphic designer in 1958.
In addition to his work on "Yellow Submarine," Edelmann designed many book covers, including the first German edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings."
In 1989, he won a competition to design the mascot of Seville's Expo '92 world fair, beating 23 other entries with his illustration of a pudgy bird with a rainbow plume and conical beak named Curro.
There was no immediate word on survivors or funeral arrangements.
