LeRoy Neiman, D-Day and Battle of the Bulge vet...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - LeRoy Neiman, whose distinctive, vibrantly colored paintings of sports figures and athletic events made him as famous as many of the athletes he drew, died on Wednesday at age 91.

Goto:

Famed sports painter LeRoy Neiman dead at 91 - Yahoo! News

 

Just happened to see him in Rocky III two days ago. His painting of Stallone is featured and he has a bit-part as the announcer in the ring with Rocky and "Thunderlips" (Hulk Hogan).

I always admired his paintings. Now I know he is a veteran I admire him even more.

 

Never a big fan of his but the WWII reference made me curious and found this from his web site bio:

In 1942, Neiman quit school and enlisted in the United States Army. While serving as a cook for four years, with two years of combat in Europe, he painted sexually suggestive murals in military kitchens and dining halls that reportedly generated enthusiastic responses from women as well as men. He also painted stage sets for Red Cross shows under the auspices of the army's Special Services division. "If nothing else, the army completely confirmed me as an artist, " he wrote in his book LeRoy Neiman: Art and Life Style (1974). "During this period I made my crucial discovery of the difference between the lifestyles of the officer and the Pfc [private first class]. This was to become the basis of my later mission in art, to investigate life's social strata from the workingman to the multimillionaire. I discovered that while the poor I knew so well are so often pitiable, the rich can be fools."