Obituary

Barbara Diamond

Renowned cartoonist Phil Interlandi died peacefully Wednesday morning

at his Laguna Beach home from complications of liver disease. He was 78.

“I would best like him to be remembered as a man who made everybody

laugh,” said daughter Carla Armstrong.

A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m., July 3 at McCormick & Son

Mortuary, 1795 Laguna Canyon Road.

Interlandi was born March 10, 1924 in Chicago Ill. He joined the U.S.

Army at age 19 and served in World War II. He was a prisoner of war in

Germany and was awarded a Purple Heart. After the war he graduated from

the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and worked in advertising before coming

to Laguna Beach in 1952.

“He was an artist and Laguna Beach was known as an artist’s colony,”

his daughter said. “As soon as he got here, he decided he wanted to spend

the rest of his life here.”

Interlandi was active at the Laguna Playhouse when it was still

downtown. He appeared as Felix in “The Odd Couple” and created the poster

for the play, which is still hanging in his home. He also appeared in

“Tea House of the August Moon.” The Playhouse presented him with a medal

and an honorary lifetime membership in 1988.

He met the mother of his three children at the Playhouse. They were

married New Year’s Eve, 1954 and later divorced.

“I have lost a good friend,” said Gary Watkins, a Laguna Beach

insurance agent.

Watkins was a bartender at the old Ivy House, now the Cedar Creek Inn,

when he met Interlandi in the 1970s. Interlandi was a member of the elite

group of cartoonists who met there almost daily. It was the hangout

closest to the U.S. Post Office, from which the group mailed their

cartoons to publications around the country.

Interlandi cartoons have been featured in “Playboy” since the second

edition and in such prominent publications as “Look,” “Saturday Evening

Post,” “Colliers,” “True,” “Lady’s Home Journal,” “The New York Times

Book Review” and “The New Yorker.” Interlandi’s “Queenie” series was

syndicated internationally and “Laguna Grins” and “Coasting Along with

Interlandi” cartoons were a popular feature in the “Laguna Coastline

News” and in the “Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot.”

“His home is stacked with cartoon originals,” said longtime friend

Watkins, executor of Interlani’s will. “I told the family they should at

least put them into albums to preserve them.”

Interlandi cartoons won international contests in Germany and Japan.

“He won almost every contest he entered in Japan,” Watkins said. “They

used to send him checks in yen. The first Japanese contest he won was for

a fax cover sheet he drew for me. He also illustrated books for Art

Linkletter and Dick Van Dyke.”

Interlandi is survived by his daughter Carla and son-in-law Dennis

Armstrong of Capistrano Beach; daughter Liza Stewart and son-in-law

Steven of South Laguna; son Joseph of Laguna Beach and his twin brother,

Frank Interlandi, also a cartoonist, but better known for his oil

painting.

The family is considering a memorial to Interlandi, possibly a bench.

Contributions may be made toward the memorial in lieu of flowers.