Caricaturist to the stars dies

New York -- Al Hirschfeld, whose graceful, fluid caricatures captured the essence of performers from Charlie Chaplin to Jerry Seinfeld, died Monday. He was 99.\nHirschfeld, who first had his drawings published in the 1920s and continued into the new century, died at his home, said his wife, Louise.\n"All I know is that when it works, I'm aware of it. But how it's accomplished, I don't know," he once said.\n"Through trial and error you eliminate and eliminate and get down to the pure line and how it communicates to the viewer," he said. "The last drawing you do is the best one -- it should be."\nHis drawings usually contained hidden tributes to his daughter, Nina. Just last month, The New York Times published a drawing by him of entertainer Tommy Tune, complete with the Hirschfeld hallmarks of fluid line, spiky cross-hatching, a graceful pose -- and four Ninas.\nHe immortalized entertainers from Ethel Merman to the casts of the 2001 smash "The Producers" and the 2002 revival of "Oklahoma!"\n"I try to capture the character of the play or the individual, rather than making a caricature for caricature's sake. Making a big nose bigger isn't witty," he said in a 1991 Associated Press interview.\n"It has its own laws, its own dimensions. And I'm always amazed it communicates to somebody else."\nHiding his daughter Nina's name in his drawings started as a little joke by a proud new father in 1945 and became a tradition. "NINA" showed up in the performer's hair, on the sleeve, in the folds of a dress. \n"When I started it, I didn't think anybody would notice," he said. "It was one of those family things, and after three or four weeks, I thought the joke had worn thin and I stopped it.\n"And then the letters started coming in. I found myself spending more time answering mail than drawing, so I gave up and put it back in. And kept it in."\nHe collaborated with humorist S.J. Perelman on several projects, including Westward Ha! Or, Around the World in 80 Cliches, a 1948 best-seller based on their travels on assignment for Holiday magazine.\nHe also illustrated Harlem, text by William Saroyan, and Treadmill to Oblivion, text by Fred Allen.\nAmong his published collections of drawings were The World of Hirschfeld and The American Theatre as Seen by Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld was author as well as illustrator of the 1951 book, Show Business Is No Business.\nIn 1991, he received a unique tribute from the Postal Service, which for the first time put an artist's name on a booklet of stamps and allowed hidden writing on a stamp -- "NINA," of course.\nHis works have graced museum walls as well as penny envelopes, and are in the permanent collections of several major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, both in New York.\nHirschfeld's wife, actress Dolly Haas, died in 1994. Two years later, Hirschfeld married Louise Kerz, a 60-year-old museum curator.