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Born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, Wes Craven (Wesley Earl Craven) was an American filmmaker, producer, writer, editor, and actor. He was very influential on the horror genre and he is mostly known for the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream franchises, and for creating slasher icon Freddy Krueger. The director died on August 30, 2015, at 76 years old, in Los Angeles, California.
Wes Craven was the son of Caroline Miller and Paul Eugene Craven. In 1963, the director graduated in English and Psychology at Wheaton College, in Illinois. As he was completing his degree, he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS), a rare autoimmune condition that causes someone’s immune system to attack their nerves, and causes muscle weakness and numbness, among other things. This made Craven graduate a little later than expected, but he went on to get a Master’s Degree in Phylosophy and Writing at Johns Hopkins University.
After teaching for a few years, he started to develop an interesting in films. That’s when he bought a used 16 mm movie camera and startes shooting shorts. His first job in the industry, which he got through a friend’s brother, was as a sound editor. Wes Craven’s first full-length movie as a director was The Last House on the Left (1972), which contained shocking material that didn’t have the effect he desired, as he didn’t think many people would watch it. His next horror movie, however, got him positive attention: it was The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and it already showed some of the trademarks that would make him famous.
Of course, real fame came with A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), followed by many sequels that cemented the saga’s central serial killer, Freddy Krueger, as an icon of horror. Among Wes Craven’s most popular other works are the first four Scream movies and New Nightmare. The filmmaker also wrote and directed one of the segments of 2006’s Paris, Je T’aime.
Image credit: John Wiley & Sons
