Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven (August 2, 1939 - August 30, 2015) was an American film director, writer, producer, and actor known for his work on horror films, particularly slasher films.

He was best known for creating the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise featuring the Freddy Krueger character, directing the first installment and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and co-writing A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors with Bruce Wagner.

Craven also directed all four films in the Scream series. Some of his other films include The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, The People Under the Stairs, Red Eye, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and Vampire in Brooklyn.

On August 30, 2015, Craven died of brain cancer, at the age of 76 at his home in Los Angeles.

Early life

Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Caroline (née Miller) and Paul Eugene Craven. He was raised in a strict Baptist family. Craven earned an undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois and a master's degree in Philosophy and Writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Craven briefly taught English at Westminster College and was a humanities professor at Clarkson College of Technology (later named Clarkson University) in Potsdam, New York. He additionally taught at Madrid-Waddington High School in Madrid, New York. During this time, he purchased a used 16mm film camera and began making short movies. When his friend Tom Chapin informed him of a messenger position at a New York City post-production company run by his brother, future folk-rock star Harry Chapin, Craven moved to Manhattan. His first creative job in the film industry was as a sound editor for Chapin's firm.

Recalling his early training, Craven said in 1994, "Harry was a fantastic film editor and producer of industrials. He taught me The Chapin Method : 'Nuts and bolts! Nuts and bolts! Get rid of the shit!'" Craven afterward became the firm's assistant manager, and broke into film editing with You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat (1971).

Directing and writing career

Craven left the academic world for the more lucrative role of pornographic film director. In the documentary Inside Deep Throat, Craven says on camera he made "many hard core X-rated films" under pseudonyms. While his role in Deep Throat is undisclosed, most of his early known work involved writing, film editing or both. Craven's first feature film as director was The Last House on the Left, which was released in 1972.

Craven frequently collaborated with Sean S. Cunningham. In Craven's debut feature, The Last House on the Left, Cunningham served as producer. Later, in Craven's best-known film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Cunningham directed one of the chase scenes, although he was not credited. Their characters, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, appeared together in the slasher film Freddy vs. Jason (2003) with Cunningham acting as producer, while screenwriter Victor Miller is credited as "Character Creator". Later, in The Last House on the Left remake (2009), Cunningham and Craven share production credits.

Craven had a hand in launching actor Johnny Depp's career by casting him in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Depp's first major film role.

Although known for directing horror/thriller films, he had worked on two films which are outside this genre: Music of the Heart (1999), and as one of the 22 directors responsible for Paris, je t'aime (2006).

Craven created Coming of Rage, a five-issue comic book series, with 30 Days of Night comic book writer Steve Niles. The series was released in digital form in 2014 by Liquid Comics with a print edition scheduled for an October 2015 debut.

Film style

Craven's works tend to share a common exploration of the nature of reality. A Nightmare on Elm Street, for example, dealt with the consequences of dreams in real life. New Nightmare "brushes against" (but does not quite break) the fourth wall by having actress Heather Langenkamp play herself as she is haunted by the villain of the film in which she once starred. At one point in the film, the audience sees on Wes Craven's word processor a script he has written, which includes the exact conversation he just had with Heather — as if the script was being written as the action unfolded. The Serpent and the Rainbow portrays a man who cannot distinguish between nightmarish visions and reality.

In Scream, the characters frequently reference horror films similar to their situations, and at one point Billy Loomis tells his girlfriend that life is just a big movie. This concept was emphasized in the sequels, as copycat stalkers reenact the events of a new film about the Woodsboro killings (Woodsboro being the fictional town where Scream is set) occurring in Scream. Scream included a scene mentioning a Richard Gere urban legend. Craven stated in interviews that he received calls from agents telling him that if he left that scene in, he would never work again. The last film that he directed before his death was Scream 4.

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Wes Craven

During his career, Wes Craven was nominated for and won several awards, including the Saturn Award.

In 1977, he won the critic's award at the Sitges Film Festival for his film The Hills Have Eyes. The Gérardmer Film Festival granted him the Grand Prize in 1997 for Scream. In 2012, the New York City Horror Film Festival awarded Craven the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Other work

Craven designed the Halloween 2008 logo for Google and was the second celebrity personality to take over the YouTube homepage on Halloween.

Craven had a letter published in the July 19, 1968 edition of Life magazine, praising that periodical's coverage of contemporary rock music, in particular Frank Zappa's.

Personal life

Craven's first marriage, to Bonnie Broecker, produced two children: Jonathan Craven (born 1965) and Jessica Craven (born 1968). Jonathan is a writer and director. Jessica was a singer/songwriter in the group the Chapin Sisters. The marriage ended in 1970. In 1982, Craven married a woman who would become known professionally as actress Mimi Craven. The two later divorced, with Wes Craven stating in interviews that the marriage dissolved after he discovered it "was no longer anything but a sham". In 2004, Craven married Iya Labunka; she frequently worked as a producer on Craven's films.

Craven was a birder; in 2010, he joined Audubon California's Board of Directors. His favorite films included Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Virgin Spring (1960) and Red River (1948).

Death and legacy

On August 30, 2015, Craven died of brain cancer, at the age of 76, at his home in Los Angeles. The 10th episode of Scream was dedicated in his memory.

Filmmakers that Craven has influenced include Alexandre Aja, Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, and Jack Thomas Smith.

Books

Year	Title
1999	Fountain Society
2013	Coming of Rage

Filmography

Year	Film	Director	(Executive) Producer	Writer	Cinematographer	Editor	Actor	Role	Notes
1971	Together		N
1972	The Last House on the Left	N		N		N
1977	The Hills Have Eyes	N		N		N
1978	Stranger in Our House	N							TV movie
	The Evolution of Snuff				N
	Here Come the Tigers				N
1981	Deadly Blessing	N		N
	Kent State		N						TV movie
1982	Swamp Thing	N		N
1984	Invitation to Hell	N							TV movie
	A Nightmare on Elm Street	N		N
1985	Chiller	N							TV movie
	The Hills Have Eyes Part II	N		N
	The Twilight Zone	N							TV series, 5 episodes
1986	Deadly Friend	N
	Casebusters	N							Episode of anthology TV series Disneyland
1987	A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors		N	N
1988	The Serpent and the Rainbow	N
1989	The People Next Door		N	N					TV series, co-creator
	Shocker	N	N	N			N	The neighbor
1990	Night Visions	N	N	N					TV movie
1991	The People Under the Stairs	N	N	N
1992	Nightmare Cafe	N	N						TV series
1993	Laurel Canyon		N
	Body Bags						N	Pasty faced man in garage	Cameo
1994	Wes Craven's New Nightmare	N	N	N			N	Himself
1995	Vampire in Brooklyn	N
	The Hills Have Eyes III		N						aka Mind Ripper
	The Fear						N	Dr. Arnold
1996	Scream	N					N	"Fred" (school janitor)	Cameo
1997	Scream 2	N	N				N	Doctor
	Wishmaster		N
1998	Hollyweird		N						TV movie
	Don't Look Down		N			N
	Carnival of Souls		N			N
1999	Music of the Heart	N
2000	Scream 3	N					N	Tourist	Cameo
	Dracula 2000		N
2001	Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back						N	Himself	Cameo
2002	They Shoot Divas, Don't They?		N						TV movie
	They		N
2003	Dracula II: Ascension		N
2004	Tales from the Crapper						N	Himself
	The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing						N
2005	Dracula III: Legacy		N
	Cursed	N
	Inside Deep Throat						N	Himself
	Feast		N
	Red Eye	N
2006	Pulse			N					Remake
	The Hills Have Eyes		N
	The Breed		N
	Paris, je t'aime	N		N			N	Vampire's Victim	Segment: Père-Lachaise
2007	The Hills Have Eyes 2		N	N					Remake
	The Tripper						N	Top hat-wearing hippy	Cameo
2008	Diary of the Dead						N	Radio voice
2009	The Last House on the Left		N						Remake
2010	My Soul to Take	N	N	N
2011	Scream 4	N	N				N	Coroner at the Randalls	Cameo
									Deleted scene
2013	Castle (TV series)						N	Himself	Cameo
									Episode: "Scared to Death"
2015	Scream (TV series)		N					Executive producer	Season 1
	The Girl in the Photographs		N

[ Source: Wikipedia ]