Cantone, Vic

Political Cartoonist

Excerpts From NEWSDAY, April 11th, 2005

Cantone, 71, of Bethpage, died April 2 after battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, for several years.

He started his career at Newsday, where he worked from 1954 to 1959 mainly doing court sketches, and then moved to the Daily News from 1959 to 1991. It was a career that included three Pulitzer Prize nominations and landed caricatures of Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, in their presidential libraries. His family has a photograph of Ford standing in the White House with one of the Cantone's caricatures of him Cantone was born in Brooklyn and was drawing cartoons by age 5, relatives said. He attended the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, graduating in 1952.

After his stint at Newsday, he went on to win numerous awards at the Daily News, including the Fourth Estate Award in 1976 and a Deadline Club award in 2003. HIs work was syndicated by King Features and appeared in publications including the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Family Weekly and Time.

He also created the "Topo the Mouse" and "Dianna" comic strips in Scholastic Magazine, and published two books including one on Topo.

In 1990, the Smithsonian Institution contracted him to curate an international political cartoon exhibit on the environment which included his work and that of political cartoonists from 35 nations. The exhibit toured the United States from 1992 to 1998.

He was buried at Holy Trinity Cemetary in Carnegie PA