Sandy Dvore Dies: ‘Young And The Restless’ Logo Designer, ‘Partridge Family’ Bird Artist Was 86

Sandy Dvore, the Emmy-winning graphic artist whose whose opening credit designs for such programs as The Young and the Restless, The Partridge Family and The Waltons are among TV’s most recognizable images, died Nov. 20 after a recent diagnosis of bone cancer. He was 86.

His death was announced by a family representative on Dvore’s official Instagram page. “He was at home where he wanted to be with [his dog] Kid and family,” according to the statement. “Someone was with him and holding his hand as he passed.”

Dvore, who studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, won an Emmy Award in 1987 for his main title design for the Carol Burnett special Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 1984 for the opening title credits of The Young and the Restless featuring his now-iconic brush stroke “Y&R” logo, but later said he was told that since he had no competition in the category that year he would not be given the award.

“I think it’s time they gave me the statue,” he wrote on Instagram last July.

Among his many other credits is the opening animation sequence for the 1970-74 sitcom The Partridge Family, in which stylized, colorful versions of the birds in the title walk in a line across the screen.

For the opening credits of the Depression Era family drama The Waltons (1972-81), Dvore combined sepia-toned photographs of the characters superimposed over mountain landscape scenes, as seen here:

Designing the opening title sequence for the 1985-88 crime drama Spencer For Hire, Dvore utilized a variation of the “Y&R” brush-stroke style but in reverse: Like wiping a foggy window, the brush slash reveals the eyes of star Robert Ulrich.

Other title sequences designed by Dvore include The Bold Ones, The Girl With Something Extra, Falcon Crest, North and South, Knott’s Landing and Wolf, as well as feature film credits 1973’s Scream Blacula Scream and 1976’s Lipstick.

Prior to his tv and film work, Dvore designed print ads for such performers as Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin and Sammy Davis, Jr., among others.

Dvore also laid claim to another design icon of the 20th Century – the Red Solo Cup – though others disputed the assertion. Credit typically goes to Robert Hulesman, head of the family-owned Solo Cup Co. when the now ubiquitous plastic party cup was invented in the 1970s. But in a longstanding disagreement, Dvore said Hulesman’s cups were white, and that it was himself who suggested the bright primary shades of red, blue, green and yellow.

“As far as the red Solo cup,” Dvore once wrote, “I was Leo Hulseman’s artist. He played horse polo. I did artwork. As far as his son [Robert] coming up with the idea, that’s a lot of crap.”

Dvore is survived by a sister, brother-in-law and other extended family.

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