Albert "Al" Hirschfeld (June 21, 1903 – January 20, 2003) was an American caricaturist best known for his simple black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he moved with his family to New York City where he received his art training at the Art Students League of New York. In 1943, he married Dolly Haas (1910–1994); they had one child, a daughter, Nina (b. 1945). In 1996, he married Louise Kerz, a theatre historian. In 1924, he traveled to Paris and London, where he studied painting, drawing and sculpture. When he returned to the United States a friend showed one of his drawings to an editor at the New York Herald Tribune, which got him commissions for that newspaper and The New York Times. Hirschfeld's art style is unique, and he is considered to be one of the most important figures in contemporary caricature, having influenced countless cartoonists. His caricatures are almost always drawings of pure line with simple black ink on white paper with little to no shading or crosshatching. His drawings always manage to capture a likeness using the minimum number of lines.