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John Moranz was born in 1900 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. After completing his high school education in Ohio, he secured work as a cartoonist for New York World Magazine.

In the early 1930s, he worked as an illustrator for the newspaper in Rochester, New York, where he was known as “Jack” Moranz, and later served as a staff artist for the Youngstown Vindicator in Youngstown, Ohio.

He also worked in California and was known to have been in Washington DC in 1930 and San Francisco in 1931, suggesting his stay in California was brief.  

Moranz served in World War II, reportedly as an artist in the employ of the U.S. government, and was sent to France. He stated in a 1966 interview with Fort Worth radio station WBAP that he took advantage of his war service to “study every major painter in Europe.”

Following the conclusion of the war, Moranz came to Texas, first living in Houston and later Dallas. Between 1945 and 1950, he authored two major books on drawing and illustration, Mastery of Drawing: The Professional Guide (Richard R. Smith Publishing, New York, 1950); and Drawing and Illustration: A Complete Guide (Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola, New York, 1950). He was also credited as the illustrator of Men of Achievement: Texas Edition (Evelyn Miller Crowell, editor, 1948), a book containing dozens of pencil portraits of successful Texas businessmen.

As a Texas artist, Moranz gained a national reputation as a portrait painter while maintaining a steady production of high-quality figure drawings and western-themed paintings. He was commissioned to paint the official portraits of two Texas governors, Beauford Jester (painted posthumously in 1949) and Allan Shivers (painted in 1953). He produced a formal portrait of Governor John Connally in 1966. The Connally portrait along with 24 other oil and pastel portraits by Moranz were exhibited for two weeks in August, 1966 at the Fort Worth National Bank.

United States President Dwight Eisenhower sat for Moranz in 1953. Afterwards, Texas Governor Allan Shivers presented the portrait to Mrs. Eisenhower. During his career, Moranz also produced portraits of General Douglas MacArthur, Sir Winston Churchill, and former presidents Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson. The Johnson portrait reportedly hangs in the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas.

John Moranz also painted the portraits of many prominent Fort Worth businessmen and their family members after his move to the city from Dallas about 1966. Among his Fort Worth sitters were Marvin Leonard, Sid Richardson, and Ben Hogan. During his time in Fort Worth, Moranz produced portrait commissions and western paintings, and conducted numerous drawing classes for young people who desired careers as professional artists.