Early life
Gross was born on October 3, 1945, in Newburgh, New York.1 He trained as a designer and broke into the field young: he contributed design work for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and served as art director of the short-lived EYE magazine in the late 1960s before joining National Lampoon.1
National Lampoon and design career
Gross was hired as art director of National Lampoon in 1970, with his first work appearing in the magazine's November 1970 "Nostalgia" issue. He held the post through 1974 and shaped the look of the title during its most influential years.1 His best-known piece is the cover of the January 1973 "Death" issue: a photograph of a dog with a revolver pointed at its head, captioned "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog." The image started life as a subscription advertisement and was promoted to the cover when the issue's theme was set; in 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors rated it one of the 40 greatest magazine covers of all time.1
After leaving the Lampoon, Gross co-founded the New York design firm Pellegrini, Kaestle & Gross. During this period he worked as a personal designer for John Lennon, consulted for the Muppets, and later served as an art director at Esquire and design director for Mobil Oil.1 His January 1973 "We'll Kill This Dog" cover remained among the best known work of his design career and was later referenced as set dressing in IDW's Ghostbusters comics (see below).
Ghostbusters
Gross moved to California around 1980 and joined the producing circle around Ivan Reitman and Joe Medjuck, a partnership that would run through more than a decade of films and the Ghostbusters animated series.1
The no-ghost logo
The art direction and final design of the no-ghost sign were done by Gross with help from Brent Boates. Gross has been clear about how the credit divides. On the Slimer Mode track for the first film he said the logo "was in Danny Aykroyd's original script. I take credit as having art directed and designed the original logo but I did not conceive it." Joe Medjuck, on the film's commentary, recalled that Gross "redesigned a little bit of [the] shape of the ghost," while the basic idea came earlier. In the documentary Cleanin' Up The Town, Richard Edlund credited Boates with designing the logo. The concept itself traces back to Dan Aykroyd's original script.
Ghostbusters (1984)
Gross was credited as associate producer on the first film, directed by Ivan Reitman. His behind-the-scenes contributions extended past producing into the design work that helped fix the franchise's visual identity.
Gross also has a small in-film cameo. During the first montage, the corner flap of the Time magazine cover bears his image; the fake covers in that sequence were produced by designer Michael McWillie.2
One scene stuck with him. The moment when Peter Venkman walks into Dana Barrett's apartment, leans over the piano, plinks the keys and says "They hate that," made Gross laugh so hard on set that the take had to be redone. He called it the funniest scene in the movie and said he laughed every time he saw it.3
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Gross served as executive producer on the sequel. He was involved in the look of the Scoleri Brothers, the courtroom ghosts. Tim Lawrence took his cue from the Blues Brothers, a tall thin man and a short fat man, and pushed the concepts into broad caricature; Henry Mayo helped refine the designs with input from Gross.4 When Reitman worried the ghosts might be over the top, Gross argued for keeping them wild. As he put it, given how frightening other sequences were, going broad with the Scoleris "would lighten the moment," and they were the first full-scale ghosts seen in the film.5
His son, Dylan, worked as a camera loader on Ghostbusters II, one of his first jobs in the business; he went on to a career as an aerial director of photography.1
The Real Ghostbusters and Slimer!
Gross was executive producer across the run of The Real Ghostbusters and its later companion Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters. He also wrote the Slimer! segment "Monkey See, Monkey Don't". Gross and Joe Medjuck took the show seriously, reading every script and pushing to keep the franchise's quality up, sometimes clashing with ABC and the other producers over what should make it to air. Gross recorded commentary for The Real Ghostbusters DVD box set, where an extended interview with him appears on the bonus disc.
Among the toy line tie-ins, Kenner's Ecto-Bomber was a favorite of his, and he kept the product photography and his original approval paperwork for it.6 A company he owned, Emecege, held the rights to produce adult-size T-shirts and sweatshirts depicting Slimer.7
Other film and television work
Outside Ghostbusters, Gross built a long producing partnership with Reitman and Medjuck, working as producer or executive producer on roughly eleven films.1 His credits include associate producer on the animated feature Heavy Metal (1981); executive producer on Legal Eagles (1986), Twins (1988), and Kindergarten Cop (1990); producer on Beethoven (1992) and Beethoven's 2nd (1993); and producing work on Dave (1993). He also produced for television, including the Beethoven animated series.1
Gross stepped away from Hollywood in the mid-1990s and returned to fine art. He worked as a painter, photographer, and museum curator, lived for a time in Italy, and taught and lectured before settling in Oceanside, California.1
In IDW comics
IDW's Ghostbusters comics worked in several nods to Gross. In Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #13, Oscar's principal is named "Mr. Gross," read as a tribute. His National Lampoon "We'll Kill This Dog" cover appears framed on a wall in Ghostbusters International #1 (page 20) and again across the opening page of Ghostbusters International #2.1
Personal life
Gross was the father of cinematographer Dylan Goss, a director of photography, and of a daughter, Gina; he had three grandchildren.1
Death
Gross died of cancer on November 16, 2015, in Oceanside, California, at the age of 70.1
