New Yorker cartoonist Hamilton killed in Kentucky accident

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Cartoonist William Hamilton, whose work for The New Yorker magazine satirized the wealthy, has died in a car accident in Kentucky. He was 76.

New Yorker spokeswoman Adrea Piazza confirmed Hamilton’s death in a statement Monday.

The car Hamilton was driving went through a stop sign and collided with a pickup truck Friday in Lexington, police Lt. Matthew Greathouse said. He said Hamilton was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The cause of death wasn’t immediately released.

In his 51-year career, Hamilton’s cartoons often focused on money and depicted corporate executives or characters in suits and gowns in lavish dining settings or parties.

In a 1988 interview with The New York Times, Hamilton said his interest with people in high society came from “being near money, but far enough away that I couldn’t quite get my fingers around it.”

New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff said Monday that Hamilton was “witty in a cutting way. He was cutting into the people he knew so well. And he was making fun of their pretentions and pompousness.”

The magazine paid tribute to Hamilton on Sunday with a display of his cartoons on its website.

Born in Palo Alto, California in 1939, Hamilton graduated from Yale University. After a stint in the Army, he had his work published in The New Yorker from 1965 until the time of his death. He also wrote four plays and three novels.

Hamilton is survived by his third wife, Lucy Young Hamilton; a daughter, Alexandra H. Kimball; a son, Gilliam Collinsworth Hamilton; a sister and brother and two grandchildren.