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John Carpenter
John Carpenter
Birth name: John Howard Carpenter
Aliases: Martin Quatermass; Frank Armitage
Gender: Male
Medium(s): Film; Television
Roles: Director; Composer; Writer
Date of birth: January 16th, 1948
Place of birth: Carthage, New York
Notable works: Halloween
1st Horror: Halloween (1978)

John Carpenter is an American film director and composer best known for creating the Halloween franchise. He was born on January 16th in Carthage, New York. Carpenter's earliest work comprised a series of shorts based on classic atomic-era sci-fi horror such as Revenge of the Collosal Beasts, Terror from Space and Gorgon, the Space Monster. His first full directorial debut was the 1976 action film Assault on Precinct 13, which he also wrote. His first genre film was the 1978 slasher Halloween, a film whose popularity would spawn seven sequels and three remakes. Carpenter collaborated on Halloween with Debra Hill, who also worked with him on Assault on Precinct 13. Carpenter also composed the film score for Halloween, which consisted of a simple, yet haunting 10/8 meter melody that would become one of the most recognizable scores in horror film history. Although Halloween is arguably Carpenter's most famous film, he only directed the first movie and had minimal involvement with the sequels. Over the next twenty years, Carpenter's work remained locked in the horror genre, though he did enjoy some non-genre hits such as the Escape From New York franchise. In 2005, Carpenter was one of many genre directors who contributed their talents to the Masters of Horror mini-movies. Carpenter directed the 2005 episode "Cigarette Burns" and the 2006 episode "Pro-Life".

Body of work[]

Film Year Role
Halloween 1978 Director, Writer, Composer, Actor
The Fog 1980 Director; Writer; Composer, Actor
Halloween II 1981 Writer; Composer; Producer
The Thing 1982 Director; Actor
Halloween III: Season of the Witch 1982 Producer; Writer; Composer
Christine 1983 Director; Composer
Prince of Darkness 1987 Director; Writer; Composer
They Live 1988 Director; Writer; Composer
Body Bags 1993 Director; Composer
In the Mouth of Madness 1994 Director; Composer
Village of the Damned 1995 Director
Vampires 1998 Director, Composer
Ghosts of Mars 2001 Director; Writer; Composer
The Ward 2010 Director

Television[]

Notes & Trivia[]

  • John Carpenter made a cameo appearance in the 1993 anthology film Body Bags, playing the coroner in the film's opening and closing sequences. The end of the film reveals that Carpenter's character is actually a zombie and is supposed to be one of the cadavers in the mortuary.
  • John Carpenter was originally tapped to direct the adapation of Stephen King's Firestarter in 1984, which would have been written by The Thing script writer Bill Lancaster. However, due to poor theatrical returns on The Thing, both men were dropped from the project.

External Links[]

References[]



Halloween logo
Halloween Actor or Crew member
This article relates to actors, crew members and other behind-the-scenes creators pertaining to the Halloween franchise. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Halloween Crew category.
Moh logo
Masters of Horror Actor or Crew member
This article relates to actors or production crew members pertaining to the Masters of Horror mini-movie franchise. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Masters of Horror crew members category.
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