Gerald Scarfe (born 1936 in London) is a British caricaturist and illustrator known for his distorted portraits of politicians and members of the royal family. From the 1960s he became one of the most recognisable graphic voices in the British press.
His early caricatures of public figures appeared in the satirical magazine Private Eye, and later in Punch, The Evening Standard and The Daily Sketch. He worked for The Sunday Times and for Time magazine, which commissioned cover illustrations from him. As a child he was severely asthmatic and spent long periods in bed, and drawing became his main pastime; he has linked the dark, grotesque quality of much of his imagery to that experience.
His best-known association is with Pink Floyd. Roger Waters and Nick Mason approached him after seeing one of his animated films. He produced animated clips for the 1977 In The Flesh tour, the artwork for the 1979 album The Wall, and animation and stage props for the 1980-1981 tour. For the 1982 film of The Wall he created the animation, including a sequence of the German bombing of England set to "Goodbye Blue Sky". He later worked with Waters on his solo album and on stage versions of The Wall.
His work also extended to the animated titles and closing illustrations of the BBC series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, the character design for Disney's Hercules (1997), and sets and costumes for opera and ballet productions.
In 2013 a cartoon of his in The Sunday Times depicting Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on Holocaust Memorial Day and was criticised by Jewish organisations, which called it antisemitic. Scarfe argued that it targeted the prime minister's policies, and the newspaper's management apologised. His legacy lies in bringing a grotesque, personal style of caricature into animation, theatre and film.