Born on January 23, 1934 in Los Angeles, California. When he was a child Wright and his family moved, across the United States, to Florida. Wright graduated from Miami Edison High School in 1952. A job as a copyboy at the Miami News, from 1952 to 1956, gave Wright his avid interest in cartoons.

While the Miami News refused to give Wright a job in the art department, in case he was drafted in the war, the newspaper did give him the job of photographer. Shortly after, Wright was drafted and served in the U.S. Army as a photographer, before returning to the Miami News as its graphics editor in 1958.Shortly after rejoining the Miami News, Wright resigned. Not wishing to lose Wright, the Miami News offered to publish some of his cartoons. By 1963, Wright's editorial cartoons, on local issues, were regular features on the newspaper's editorial page. He worked for The Miami News until it ceased publication in 1988.

In 1989, Wright moved to The Palm Beach Post where he worked until his retirement in August 2008. Wright's work has been syndicated by both the Washington (DC) Star Syndicates and the New York Times Syndicate. As of 2009, Wright continues to draw editorial cartoons distributed by Tribune Media Services.

His cartoons have been published in at least two books: Wright On! A Collection of Political Cartoons (1971) and Wright Side Up(1981).

Wright received the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1966, for his cartoon "You Mean You Were Bluffing?", and another in 1980. He has been nominated for a Pulitzer at least eight times.Wright won the National Cartoonist Society Editorial Cartoon Award for 1985. He has won the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism twice.

He has also won the Inter American Press Award three times, the Overseas Press Club Award five times, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism Award twice, the National Headliner Award and the Best of Cox Award twice.