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Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, named David Poe Jr., and his mother, named Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, were touring actors. Both parents died in 1811, and Poe became an orphan before he was 3 years old. He was adopted by John Allan, a tobacco merchant in Richmond, Virginia, and was sent to a boarding school in London, England. He later attended the University of Virginia for one year, but dropped out and ran up massive gambling debts after spending all of his tuition money. John Allan broke off Poe's engagement to his fiancée Sarah Royster. Poe was heartbroken, traumatized, and broke. He had no way out and enlisted in the army in May of 1827. At the same time Poe published his first book, "Tamerlane and Other Poems" (1827). In 1829, he became a West Point cadet, but was dismissed after 6 months for disobedience. By that time he published "Al Aaraf" (1929) and "Poems by Edgar A. Poe" (1831), with the funds contributed by his fellow cadets. His early poetry, though written in the manner of Lord Byron, already shows the musical effects of his verses.
Poe moved in with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, and her teenage daughter, Virginia Eliza Clemm, whom he married before she was 14 years old. He earned respect as a critic and writer. In his essays "The Poetic Principle" and "The Philosophy of Composition," Poe formulated important literary theories. But his career suffered from his compulsive behavior and from alcoholism. He did produce, however, a constant flow of highly musical poems, of which "The Raven" (1845) and "The Bells" (1849) are the finest examples. Among his masterful short stories are "Ligeia" (1838), "The Fall of the House of Usher"(1839) and "The Masque of the Red Death". Following his own theory of creating "a certain unique or single effect", Poe invented the genre of the detective story. His works: "The Murder in the Rue Morgue" (1841) is probably the first detective story ever published.
Just when his life began to settle, Poe was devastated by the death of his wife Virginia in 1847. Two years later he returned to Richmond and resumed a relationship with his former fiancée, Sarah Royster, who, by that time, was a widow. But shortly after their happy reconciliation he was found unconscious on a street in Baltimore. Poe was taken to the Washington College Hospital where Doctor John Moran diagnosed "lesions on the brain" (the Doctor believed Poe was mugged). He died 4 days later, briefly coming in and out of consciousness, just to whisper his last words, "Lord, help my poor soul." The real cause of his death is still unknown and his death certificate has disappeared. Poe's critic and personal enemy, named Rufus Griswold, published an insulting obituary; later he visited Poe's home and took away all of the writer's manuscripts (which he never returned), and published his "Memoir" of Poe, in which he forged a madman image of the writer.
The name of the woman in Poe's poem "Annabel Lee" was used by Vladimir Nabokov in 'Lolita' as the name for Humbert's first love, Annabelle Leigh. Nabokov also used in 'Lolita' some phrases borrowed from the poem of Edgar Allan Poe. "The Fall of the House of Usher" was set to music by Claude Debussy as an opera. Sergei Rachmaninoff created a musical tribute to Poe by making his favorite poem "The Bells" into the eponymous Choral Symphony.- Roy Moore was born on 17 January 1944 in London, Ontario, Canada. He is a writer, known for Black Christmas (1974), Black Christmas (2006) and The Last Chase (1981).
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Chad Hayes was born in Portland, Oregon, USA. Chad is a writer and producer, known for The Conjuring (2013), Lethal Weapon (1987) and The Conjuring 2 (2016).- Writer
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Carey W. Hayes was born on 21 April 1961 in Portland, Oregon, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for The Conjuring (2013), The Conjuring 2 (2016) and Whiteout (2009).- Writer
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Richard D'Ovidio is known for The Call (2013), The Forger (2014) and Thir13en Ghosts (2001). He is married to Nicole D'Ovidio. They have one child.- Writer
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He is the first son of director Shohei Imamura. He graduated from Ryuku University. In 1984 he joined Shinchosha, but left in 1991 to pursue a creative career. His directing debut was in 1990. He was also a screenwriter on movies of such directors as Shôhei Imamura and Takashi Miike.- Pierre Boileau was born on 28 April 1906 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for Vertigo (1958), Diabolique (1955) and Eyes Without a Face (1960). He died on 16 January 1989 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
- Thomas Narcejac was born on 3 July 1908 in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France. He was a writer, known for Vertigo (1958), Diabolique (1955) and Eyes Without a Face (1960). He died on 9 June 1998 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
- Jean Redon is known for Eyes Without a Face (1960), Eyes Without a Face and Conduite à gauche (1962).
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Kôji Suzuki was born on 13 May 1957 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. He is a writer and actor, known for Rings (2017), Dark Water (2002) and The Ring (2002).- Writer
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Ken'ichi Suzuki was born on 3 November 1971 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. He is a writer and actor, known for Dark Water (2002), Akumu no erebêtâ (2009) and The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker (2007).- Actor
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Yoshihiro Nakamura was born on 25 August 1970 in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. He is an actor and director, known for Fish Story (2009), A Boy and His Samurai (2010) and Dark Water (2002).- Writer
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Born in Brockton, Massachusetts. First Play was a one-act performed at the Massachusetts Drama Festival in 1966: To Be or Not. Second Play was performed there in 1967: The Madison Avenue Muse. Attended Dartmouth College, where he was a Senior Fellow in Film in 1971. Attended U.S.C., where he received an M.F.A. in Cinema, writing & production in 1973. Worked in medical film and television from 1973-78. Produced commercials in 1979. Moved to L.A. in 1979. Worked as a cinematographer/editor for children's educational films in 1979. Worked as a film writer and director for General Dynamics in 1980. Became a member of the WGAw in 1980 with Summer Solstice. Moved back from L.A. to N.H. in 1984, where he continues to write and to teach screenwriting at Dartmouth College. Taught screenwriting one year at Boston University, in 2000. Taught screenwriting at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, in 2001. Has taught screenwriting at various workshops, such as the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA and The Cranbrook School in Michigan.- Writer
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Allan Scott was born on 16 September 1939 in Elgin, Scotland, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for Don't Look Now (1973), The Preacher's Wife (1996) and Kon-Tiki (2012).- Writer
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Chris Bryant was born in 1936 in Bolton, Lancashire, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Don't Look Now (1973), One Against the Wind (1991) and Sword of Gideon (1986). He was married to Penelope Riley. He died on 27 October 2008 in Burford, Oxfordshire, England, UK.- Producer
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Robert Engels is known for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Twin Peaks (1990) and Andromeda (2000).- Writer
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Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Roslyn, New York. His father was a journalist and encouraged him to write and to type. Michael gave up studying English at Harvard University, having become disillusioned with the teaching standards--the final straw came when he submitted an essay by George Orwell that was given a "B-." After giving up English and spending a year in Europe, Michael returned to Boston, Massachusetts, and attended Havard Medical School to train as a doctor. Several times, he was persuaded not to quit the course but did so after qualifying in 1969.
During his medical-student days, he wrote novels secretly mainly under the pseudonym of John Lange in reference to his almost 6ft 9 height. (Lange in German means long) One novel, "A Case of Need," written under the pseudonym Jeffery Hudson, (Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous 17th century dwarf) contained references to people at Harvard Medical School, but he couldn't hide his identity when the novel won an award that had to be collected in person. After giving up medicine, Michael moved to Hollywood, California, in the early 1970s and began directing movies based on his books, his first big break being Westworld (1973).- Writer
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John Lee Mahin was born on 23 August 1902 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Scarface (1932), Captains Courageous (1937) and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957). He was married to Muriel Mae McKinnon, Barbara Ann Bonnett, Patsy Ruth Miller and Nancy Hume Derr. He died on 18 April 1984 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Writer
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Donald E. Westlake was born on 12 July 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Grifters (1990), Payback (1999) and The Stepfather (2009). He was married to Abigail Adams, Sandra Foley and Nedra Henderson. He died on 31 December 2008 in San Tancho, Mexico.- Writer
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Brian Garfield was born on 26 January 1939 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Death Wish (1974), Death Wish (2018) and Hopscotch (1980). He was married to Bina. He died on 29 December 2018 in Pasadena, California, USA.- Laird Koenig was born on 24 September 1927 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was a writer, known for The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), Inchon (1981) and Bloodline (1979). He died on 30 June 2023 in Santa Barbara, California, USA.
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Barry Gifford was born on 18 October 1946 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Lost Highway (1997), Wild at Heart (1990) and Black Wings Has My Angel.- Writer
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Michael Patrick Dougherty is a writer, director, animator, and producer known for his work in a variety of genre films, both big and small. Beginning his career as an animator and illustrator, Dougherty's animated work was featured on MTV, Nickelodeon, and a line of twisted greeting cards published by NobleWorks. He then co-wrote the blockbusters X-Men 2 and Superman Returns before making his directorial debut with the classic horror comedy, Trick 'r Treat (2007), starring Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker, and Brian Cox. Trick 'r Treat has since become a perennial favorite that has spawned a growing line of toys, comics, theme park attractions, and Halloween decor, and a sequel is in development with Legendary Pictures. Dougherty later set his sights on Christmas, which resulted in Krampus (2015), a holiday horror comedy starring Toni Collette, Adam Scott, David Koechner, and Allison Tolman. Much like Trick 'r Treat, Krampus has become an annual holiday classic. Most recently, Dougherty co-wrote and directed the blockbuster Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) starring Millie Bobby Brown, Vera Farmiga, and Ken Watanabe, and co-wrote the story for its sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), starring Brian Tyree Henry, Rebecca Hall, and Alexander Skaarsgaard. Collectively, Dougherty's work has grossed over 2 billion dollars at the box office.- Writer
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Born in the northern Canadian town of Timmins, Ontario; raised in the small town of Prescott, Ontario, on the St. Lawrence River; Sandor Stern was drawn to short story writing while in high school and began writing stage plays while attending the University of Toronto. Though he planned to obtain a degree in teaching, a physician-uncle suggested that medicine might offer more involving experiences for an aspiring writer. Heeding that advice, Stern enrolled in Medical School at the University of Toronto. During his schooling, he continued to write, switching to TV scripts, and selling his first script to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation prior to his graduation in 1961. Setting up a private practice in Toronto, Stern continued to write; adding songwriting and variety sketch writing to his credits. Over the next five years, he wrote numerous shows for the CBC until demand for his work allowed him to give up the practice of medicine and devote full time to writing. He wrote the CTV network's first drama, _Rumble of Silence (????) (TV)_, and created the CBC network's medical series, Corwin (1969). Deciding to try his luck in Hollywood, Stern arrived in LA and immediately landed an assignment to write an episode of NBC's, "Bold Ones, The". He quickly moved on to other episodic dramas, Ironside (1967), 0066681 and onto producing with Mod Squad (1968) and Doc Elliot (1973). His TV movie producing began in 1976 with The Strange and Deadly Occurrence (1974). In 1979 The Seeding of Sarah Burns (1979) was his first directing assignment. Since then he has written and/or directed more than 35 movies, including the screenplays for three feature films; The Amityville Horror (1979), Fast Break (1979) (winner of the 1978 NAACP Image Award for best screenplay) and Pin (1988) (which he also directed). Stern is married to Kandy Stern, an artist, production designer and producer, with whom he co-wrote and co-produced the NBC movie, Deception: A Mother's Secret (1991) and co-produced the USA Cable movie, Jericho Fever (1993). His recent credits include director on the ABC movie The Stranger Beside Me (1995) and the NBC movie Gridlock (1996).- Writer
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Arthur K. Flam (a.k.a. Arthur Kamil Flam or Arthur Flam) was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer known for Penny Dreadful (2006), Hit and Run (2009), and Lurker (1998). He is the co-writer and the co-creator of "41 Strange", a first of its kind original anthology and writer of the unique novelette "Apple Pie Ultra 8".- Director
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Diane Doniol-Valcroze was born in Paris, France. She is a writer and director known for Penny Dreadful (2006), Hit and Run (2009), Kill by Inches (1999), and Fissure (1996). She is the co-writer and the co-creator of "41 Strange", a book of original flash fiction stories, a first of its kind anthology. Her grandfather was French film director André Cayatte.- Director
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Jaume Balagueró was born on 2 November 1968 in Lleida, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. He is a director and writer, known for REC (2007), Sleep Tight (2011) and The Nameless (1999).- Writer
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Luiso Berdejo was born in 1975 in San Sebastián, Spain. He is a writer and director, known for REC (2007), Quarantine (2008) and The New Daughter (2009).- Writer
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A former Disney Creative VP, Craig Singer's latest film 6:45 enjoyed a nationwide theatrical release via Regal Cinema in 2021. Singer is also known as the director and producer of A Good Night to Die (2003), Dark Ride (2006), Perkins' 14 (2009) and Animal Room (1995). In 2022 Singer is prepping Paradiddle, an emotionally rich and gripping drama, which originally ran Off-Broadway for the screen.- Writer
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Robert Dean Klein is known for A Good Night to Die (2003), 6:45 (2021) and Little Fish, Strange Pond (2009).- Director
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Takashi Shimizu was born on 27 July 1972 in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Ju-on: The Grudge (2002), The Grudge (2004) and Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003).- Director
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- Minako Daira is known for One Missed Call (2008), One Missed Call (2003) and One Missed Call 3: Final (2006).
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Yasushi Akimoto was born on 2 May 1958 in Tokyo, Japan. He is a writer and producer, known for Wreck-It Ralph (2012), AKB48 Show! (2013) and One Missed Call (2008). He has been married to Mamiko Takai since 23 May 1988. They have one child.- Writer
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Member of The Committee, an early improvisational comedy theater group in San Francisco, founded in the mid-1960s, which shared cast members including Gary Goodrow, Larry Hankin, Morgan Upton, Peter Bonerz, Del Close and John Brent, with similar groups such as the Compass Players (St. Louis) and the Second City (Chicago and New York).- Director
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Jaume Balagueró was born on 2 November 1968 in Lleida, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. He is a director and writer, known for REC (2007), Sleep Tight (2011) and The Nameless (1999).- Writer
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Luiso Berdejo was born in 1975 in San Sebastián, Spain. He is a writer and director, known for REC (2007), Quarantine (2008) and The New Daughter (2009).- Writer
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Author, playwright and composer Ira Levin decided on a career of a writer at the age of 15. Educated at the elite Horace Mann school, he went on to two years at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, before transferring to New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English. He earned his degree in 1950. In 1953 he was drafted into the army. Based in Queens, New York, he wrote and produced training films for Uncle Sam before moving into television, penning scripts for such anthology series as Lights Out (1946) and The United States Steel Hour (1953). He made a bright theatre debut at the age of 25 with an adaptation of Mac Hyman's "No Time for Sergeants" (1955). He went on to write several plays, including the longest-running Broadway mystery to date, "Deathtrap" (1978), and several popular novels, including "A Kiss Before Dying", and other plays including "Critics Choice" and "Interlock" and the Broadway stage score and libretto for "Drat the Cat!". Joining ASCAP in 1965, he wrote the popular gospel song "He Touched Me" with his chief musical collaborator Milton Schafer.- Writer
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Andrew Kevin Walker was born on 14 August 1964 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for The Killer (2023), Se7en (1995) and Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar (2023).- Writer
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Stuart Gordon started his film directing career in 1985. After graduating from Lane Technical High School, Gordon worked as a commercial artist apprentice prior to enrolling at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Unable to get into the film classes, he enrolled in an acting class and ended up majoring in theater. In 1968, he directed a psychedelic adaptation of Peter Pan as a political satire. He was arrested on obscenity charges and Gordon dropped out of the university. He and his wife Carolyn formed the Organic Theater and moved the group to Chicago.
The Organic performed their work on and off-Broadway, in Los Angeles, and toured Europe. Among their productions were the world premiere of David Mamet's "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," which launched Mamet's playwriting career, the improv-based comedy "Bleacher Bums," which ran for over ten years in Los Angeles, and the hospital comedy E/R (1984), which became a TV series produced by Norman Lear.
He joined with Brian Yuzna and Charles Band's Empire Pictures to create the company's first major hit, Re-Animator (1985), based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft, which won a Critics' Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Gordon then helmed another Lovecraft adaptation From Beyond (1986) and tackled the murderous Dolls (1986) followed by Robot Jox (1989). Gordon co-created the story for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) a major hit for Disney. The same year, he directed the remake and more graphic version of The Pit and the Pendulum (1991). Other works include Fortress (1992), and the screenplay for The Dentist (1996) and Body Snatchers (1993), which he co-wrote with long-time writing partner Dennis Paoli.
In 2001, Gordon returned to the H.P. Lovecraft territory with Dagon (2001), and in 2003, directed King of the Ants (2003) about a housepainter-turned-hit man, and brought the David Mamet play Edmond (2005) to the screen.
He contributed to the horror anthology series Masters of Horror (2005) with the episode Dreams in the Witch-House (2005), based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft. He returned to the series in 2007 with the episode The Black Cat (2007), based on Edgar Allan Poe's story. And in 2008, he directed Eater (2008) for the NBC series Fear Itself (2008).
He is also known for frequently murdering his wife, actress Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, in many of his films.- Writer Dennis Paoli achieved his greatest enduring cult popularity by penning the wickedly witty scripts for two superior 80s H.P. Lovecraft adaptations directed by noted horror genre icon Stuart Gordon: the terrific "Re-Animator" and its equally excellent follow-up "From Beyond." Paoli and Gordon first crossed paths working for the experimental Organic Theater in Chicago. Besides those two films, Paoli has also written "The Pit and the Pendulum," "Castle Freak," "Dagon" and the "Masters of Horror" episodes "H.P. Lovecraft's Dreams in the Witch-House" and "The Black Cat" for Gordon. Paoli has done several screenplays for prolific low-budget movie producer Charles Band: a segment of the horror anthology "Pulse Pounders," "Spellcaster," "Meridian," and "Ghoulies II." He collaborated with Larry Cohen and Nicholas St. John on the script for Abel Ferrara's supremely creepy and underrated sci-fi/horror winner "Body Snatchers." In addition to those credits, Paoli wrote the gruesome "The Dentist" for Brian Yuzna. Outside of writing screenplays, Dennis Paoli has a regular day job as a Writing Instructor and Coordinator of the Hunter College Writing Center at Hunter College in New York. He's especially knowledgeable on Irish literature and has taught a course on Gothic fiction.
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William Norris was an actor and writer, known for Re-Animator (1985), The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) and Temporary Girl (1998). He died on 30 November 2021 in Iowa, USA.- Born in Providence, Lovecraft was a sickly child whose parents died insane. When he was 16, he wrote the astronomy column in the Providence Tribune. Between 1908 and 1923, he wrote short stories for Weird Tales magazine and others. He died in Providence, in poverty, on March 15, 1937. His most famous novel is considered to be "At the Mountains of Madness", about an expedition to the South Pole, which discovers strange creatures beneath a mountain.
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Evan Hunter was born on 15 October 1926 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Birds (1963), High and Low (1963) and Columbo (1971). He was married to Dragica Dimitrijevic, Mary Vann Hughes (Finley) and Anita R Melnick. He died on 6 July 2005 in Weston, Connecticut, USA.- Daphne Du Maurier was one of the most popular English writers of the 20th Century, when middle-brow genre fiction was accorded a higher level of respect in a more broadly literate age. For her services to literature, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1969, the female equivalent of a knighthood. Thus, she achieved a trifecta of sorts, as her father and her husband were both knights.
She was born on May 13, 1907 in London, the second daughter of the famous actor-manager Gerald du Maurier, who himself was knighted in 1922, and the actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather was the famous anglo-French writer George L. Du Maurier, the creator of Svengali in his 1894 novel "Trilby". (She was also cousin to the Llewelyn Davies boys, through her grandfather Gerald. The boys were the inspiration for the boys in J.M. Barrie' Peter Pan (1924) and his Neverland works.) Her husband was also famous: Frederick A. M. Browning, the WWII Commander "Boy" Browning renowned as the "father of the British airborne forces." He helped plan and execute Operation Market Garden, an airborne operation that put Allied troops into Germany and the Netherlands, an ultimately unsuccessful venture chronicled in Cornelius Ryan's A Bridge Too Far (1977). During the Second World War, Boy Browning achieved the rank of Lieutenant General and a knighthood. Browning's quote that Arnheim was a bridge too far later became famous as a book title and ultimately a movie title. Daphne published her first short story in 1928; her first novel, "The Loving Spirit", was published in 1931, and her last, "Rule Britannia", forty-one year later. In between, she achieved her greatest success with the novel Rebecca (1940), which was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into a classic film that won the Best Picture Oscar for 1940. Another novel, Don't Look Now (1973), adapted by Nicolas Roeg, is also considered a classic film in Britain.
Along with "Rebecca", she had great successes with her novels Jamaica Inn (1939) and Frenchman's Creek (1944), both of which were adapted into movies. The three novels were set in Cornwall, where she lived. In addition to multiple non-fiction books, Daphne Du Maurier also wrote three plays (including an adaptation of "Rebecca").
She died on April 19, 1989, in Par in her beloved Cornwall, five weeks shy of her 82nd birthday. - Writer
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Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain that deal with subjects such as Alhambra, Christopher Columbus and the Moors. Irving served as American ambassador to Spain in the 1840s.- Writer
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David Koepp is an American film director and screenwriter. He is known for writing Jurassic Park directed by Steven Spielberg, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spider-Man directed by Sam Raimi and Panic Room directed by David Fincher. He also directed You Should Have Left starring Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried.- Writer
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Ted Tally was born on 9 April 1952. He is a writer and actor, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), All the Pretty Horses (2000) and Mission to Mars (2000).- Producer
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Glen Morgan was born on 12 July 1961 in Syrcause, New York, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for The X-Files (1993), Space: Above and Beyond (1995) and The One (2001). He has been married to Kristen Cloke since 13 June 1998. They have four children.- Writer
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Jeffrey Reddick is best known for creating the Final Destination (2000) film franchise. He also co-wrote the story for, and executive produced, Final Destination 2 (2003). Jeffrey lives in Los Angeles. He grew up in Eastern Kentucky and attended Berea College. Jeffrey made his first connection to the film industry at age 14, when he wrote a prequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and mailed it Bob Shaye, the President of New Line Cinema. Bob returned the material for being unsolicited. But the young man wrote Bob an aggressive reply, which won him over. Bob read the treatment and got back to Jeffrey. Bob, and his assistant, Joy Mann, stayed in contact with Jeffrey for over five years. When he went to The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York at age 19, Bob offered him an internship at New Line Cinema. This internship turned into an 11-year stint at the studio.
Aside from Final Destination (2000), which spawned four successful sequels, Jeffrey's other credits include Lions Gate's thriller, Tamara (2005) and the remake of George Romero's classic, Day of the Dead (2008).
Jeffrey has several feature and TV projects in development and he directed his first short, Good Samaritan (2014) in 2014.- Writer
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Carl Meyer was the son of a stock speculator who committed suicide. He had to leave school at 15 to work as a secretary. Mayer moved away from Graz to Innsbruck and then Vienna, where he worked as a dramatist. Meanwhile, the events of the First World War turned him into a pacifist.
In 1917 he went to Berlin, where he worked at the small Residenztheater. He befriended Gilda Langer, the leading actress of the theatre and probably fell in love with her. He was tired of his job at the theatre when he wrote the script for "Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari" (1920) together with Hans Janowitz. It is thought that Gilda Langer was supposed to star in the movie, but she suddenly engaged herself with director Paul Czinner and then died unexpectedly early in 1920. Mayer took care of her tombstone and notes from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" were engraved in it (this was found out by Olaf Brill who rediscovered the tombstone in 1995).
"Das Kabinett" made Mayer famous and soon he was a leading film writer, working with the best directors in Germany. He worked with F.W. Murnau on "Der Letzte Man" (1924, known as "The Last Laugh" in the USA) and he also wrote the scenario for Murnau's "Sunrise" (1927). But he was a perfectionist who worked slowly and this frequently resulted in conflicts or financial trouble.
Being a Jew as well as a pacifist, he had to flee Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. He went to England, where he worked as an adviser to the British film industry. In London he became friends with director Paul Rotha.
In 1942 he was diagnosed with cancer. Near the end of his life he wanted to make a documentary on London, but due to anti-German sentiments he was unable to find a producer. His illness was maltreated and he died in 1944, poor and almost forgotten. All he left was 23 pounds and two books. He was buried at Highgate Cemetery and his epitaph reads 'Pioneer in the art of the cinema. Erected by his friends and fellow workers.' The city of Graz named a prize after him.- Hans Janowitz was born on 2 December 1890 in Podiebrad, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Podebrady, Czech Republic]. He was a writer and actor, known for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Zirkus des Lebens (1921) and The Head of Janus (1920). He died on 25 May 1954 in New York City, New York, USA.
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Debra Hill was born on 10 November 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was a writer and producer, known for Escape from L.A. (1996), Halloween (1978) and Escape from New York (1981). She died on 7 March 2005 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Producer
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John Landis began his career in the mail room of 20th Century-Fox. A high-school dropout, 18-year-old Landis made his way to Yugoslavia to work as a production assistant on Kelly's Heroes (1970). Remaining in Europe, Landis found work as an actor, extra and stuntman in many of the Spanish/Italian "spaghetti" westerns. Returning to the US, he made his feature debut as a writer-director at age 21 with Schlock (1973), an affectionate tribute to monster movies. Clad in a Rick Baker-designed gorilla suit, Landis starred as "Schlockthropus", the missing link. After working as a writer, actor and production assistant, Landis made his second film, The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), in collaboration with the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams. Landis rose to international recognition as director of the wildly successful National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). With blockbusters such as The Blues Brothers (1980), Trading Places (1983), Spies Like Us (1985), Three Amigos! (1986) and Coming to America (1988), Landis has directed some of the most popular film comedies of all time. Other feature credits include Into the Night (1985), Innocent Blood (1992) and the comedy/horror genre classic An American Werewolf in London (1981), which he also wrote. In 1986, Landis and four others were acquitted of responsibility for the tragic accident that occurred in Landis' segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) in which actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed. The film also included segments directed by Joe Dante, George Miller and Steven Spielberg. In 1983 Landis wrote and directed the groundbreaking music video of Michael Jackson's Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983), created originally to play as a theatrical short. "Thriller" forever changed MTV and the concept of music videos, garnering multiple accolades including the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Overall Video, Viewer's Choice, and the Video Vanguard Award - The Greatest Video in the History of the World. In 1991 "Thriller" was inducted into the MVPA's Hall of Fame. In 1991, Landis collaborated again with Jackson (I) on Michael Jackson: Black or White (1991), which premiered simultaneously in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million. Although it was not the first motion picture or music video to do so, "Black or White" popularized the use of "digital morphing", where one object appears to seamlessly metamorphoses into another; the project raised the standard for state-of-the-art special effects in music videos. Landis has also been active in television as the executive producer (and often director) of the Ace- and Emmy Award-winning HBO series Dream On (1990). Other TV shows produced by his company, St. Clare Entertainment (St. Clare is the patron saint of television), include Weird Science (1994), Sliders (1995), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (1997), Campus Cops (1995) and The Lost World (1998). In 2004 the Independent Film Channel broadcast his feature-length documentary about a used-car salesman, Slasher (2004). Deer Woman, an original one-hour episode written by Landis and his son Max Landis, inaugurated the Masters of Horror (2005) series in the fall of 2005 on Showtime. "Masters of Horror" also features one-hour episodes by John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Tobe Hooper, Don Coscarelli, Mick Garris, Dario Argento and Larry Cohen.
A sought-after commercial director, Landis has worked for a variety of companies including Direct TV, Taco Bell, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg's and Disney. He was made a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1985, awarded the Federico Fellini Prize by Rimini Cinema Festival in Italy and was named a George Eastman Scholar by The Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Both the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Torino Film Festival have held career retrospectives of his films. In 2004 Landis received the Time Machine Career Achievement Award at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain. Sent as a filmmaker/scholar by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, Landis has lectured at many film schools and universities including Yale, Harvard, NYU, UCLA, UCSB, USC, Texas A&M, The North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Miami and Indiana University. He has also acted as a teacher and advisor to aspiring filmmakers at the Sundance Institute in Utah. Additionally, he edited Best American Movie Writing 2001 (Thunder's Mouth Press, NY, 2001). Born in Chicago, Illinois, Landis moved to Los Angeles soon after his birth. He is married to Deborah Nadoolman, an Oscar-nominated costume designer, and President of the Costume Designers Guild, with whom he has two children.- Writer
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Dario Argento was born on September 7, 1940, in Rome, Italy, the first-born son of famed Italian producer Salvatore Argento and Brazilian fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk tales told by his parents and other family members, including an aunt who told him frighting bedtime stories. Argento based most of his thriller movies on childhood trauma, yet his own--according to him--was a normal one. Along with tales spun by his aunt, Argento was impressed by stories from The Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen and Edgar Allan Poe. Argento started his career writing for various film journal magazines while still in his teens attending a Catholic high school. After graduation, instead of going to college, Argento took a job as a columnist for the Rome daily newspaper "Paese Sera". Inspired by the movies, he later found work as a screenwriter and wrote several screenplays for a number of films, but the most important were his western collaborations, which included Cemetery Without Crosses (1969) and the Sergio Leone masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). After its release Argento wrote and directed his first movie, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), which starred Tony Musante and and British actress Suzy Kendall. It's a loose adoption on Fredric Brown's novel "The Screaming Mimi", which was made for his father's film company. Argento wanted to direct the movie himself because he did not want any other director messing up the production and his screenplay.
After "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" became an international hit, Argento followed up with two more thrillers, The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), starring 'Karl Madlen' (qv" and 'James Fransiscus', and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) ("Four Flies On Black Velvet"), both backed by his father Salvatore. Argento then directed the TV drama Testimone oculare (1973) and the historical TV drama The Five Days (1973). He then went back to directing so-called "giallo" thrillers, starting with Deep Red (1975), a violent mystery-thriller starring David Hemmings that inspired a number of international directors in the thriller-horror genre. His next work was Suspiria (1977), a surreal horror film about a witch's coven that was inspired by the Gothic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, which he also wrote in collaboration with his girlfriend, screenwriter/actress Daria Nicolodi, who acted in "Profondo Rosso" ("Deep Red") and most of Argento's films from then to the late 1980s. Argento advanced the unfinished trilogy with Inferno (1980), before returning to the "giallo" genre with the gory Tenebrae (1982), and then with the haunting Phenomena (1985).
The lukewarm reviews for his films, however, caused Argento to slip away from directing to producing and co-writing two Lamberto Bava horror flicks, Demons (1985) and Demons 2 (1986). Argento returned to directing with the "giallo" thriller Opera (1987), which according to him was "a very unpleasant experience", and no wonder: a rash of technical problems delayed production, the lead actress Vanessa Redgrave dropped out before filming was to begin, Argento's father Salvatore died during filming and his long-term girlfriend Daria broke off their relationship. After the commercial box-office failure of "Opera", Argento temporarily settled in the US, where he collaborated with director George A. Romero on the two-part horror-thriller Two Evil Eyes (1990) (he had previously collaborated with Romero on the horror action thriller Dawn of the Dead (1978)). While still living in America, Argento appeared in small roles in several films and directed another violent mystery thriller, Trauma (1993), which starred his youngest daughter Asia Argento from his long-term relationship with Nicolodi.
Argento returned to Italy in 1995, where he made a comeback in the horror genre with The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) and then with another version of "The Phantom of the Opera", The Phantom of the Opera (1998), both of which starred Asia. Most recently, Argento directed a number of "giallo" mystery thrillers such as Sleepless (2001), The Card Player (2003) and Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005), as well as two gory, supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable anthology series Masters of Horror (2005).
Having always wanted to make a third chapter to his "Three Mothers" horror films, Argento finally completed the trilogy in 2007 with the release of Mother of Tears (2007), which starred Asia Argento as a young woman trying to identify and stop the last surviving evil witch from taking over the world. In addition to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling, "La terza madre" has many references to two of his previous films, "Suspiria" (1997) and "Inferno" (1980), which is a must for fans of the trilogy.
His movies may be regarded by some critics and opponents as cheap and overly violent, but second or third viewings show him to be a talented writer/director with a penchant for original ideas and creative directing.- Writer
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- Script and Continuity Department
Lawrence D. Cohen is an American screenwriter who, although hardly prolific, has worked with some of the most respected names in the genre movie and genre fiction industry. He first came to prominence in the 1970s when he penned the screenplay for the Stephen King adaptation Carrie (1976): the film was directed by Brian De Palma and featured an all-star cast that included Amy Irving, William Katt, Piper Laurie, P.J. Soles, Sissy Spacek, and John Travolta. With a long-awaited and phenomenal resurgence in the horror novel and film - mostly due to the arrival of Stephen King - Cohen has clearly found his niche.
His next writing project was the John Irvin film Ghost Story (1981) based on the classic novel by Peter Straub. This chilling - and often ambiguous - horror tale starred Fred Astaire and 'Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in lead roles. Cohen would then script another two Stephen King adaptations. Firstly the adaptation of It (1990) that was shot by cult horror director Tommy Lee Wallace, a bildungsroman tale laced with horror and science fiction, set in the small town of Derry, Maine. Following this was the alien invasion film The Tommyknockers (1993), a body snatcher tale starring Jimmy Smits and E.G. Marshall. Both teleplays were superbly executed and have remained extremely popular.
Cohen recently scripted a fourth Stephen King story, 'The End of the Whole Mess' from his collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006). He is also a movie producer.- Writer
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Born in Brockton, Massachusetts. First Play was a one-act performed at the Massachusetts Drama Festival in 1966: To Be or Not. Second Play was performed there in 1967: The Madison Avenue Muse. Attended Dartmouth College, where he was a Senior Fellow in Film in 1971. Attended U.S.C., where he received an M.F.A. in Cinema, writing & production in 1973. Worked in medical film and television from 1973-78. Produced commercials in 1979. Moved to L.A. in 1979. Worked as a cinematographer/editor for children's educational films in 1979. Worked as a film writer and director for General Dynamics in 1980. Became a member of the WGAw in 1980 with Summer Solstice. Moved back from L.A. to N.H. in 1984, where he continues to write and to teach screenwriting at Dartmouth College. Taught screenwriting one year at Boston University, in 2000. Taught screenwriting at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, in 2001. Has taught screenwriting at various workshops, such as the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA and The Cranbrook School in Michigan.- Writer
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Born in New Jersey and raised in Brooklyn, Richard Burton Matheson first became a published author while still a child, when his stories and poems ran in the "Brooklyn Eagle". A lifelong reader of fantasy tales, he made his professional writing bow in 1950 when his short story "Born of Man and Woman"? appeared in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction"; Matheson turned out a number of highly regarded horror, fantasy and mystery stories throughout that decade. He broke into films in 1956, adapting his novel "The Shrinking Man" for the big-screen The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957).- Writer
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He was also the Creator and Executive Producer for the show "FALCON CREST'' 1981 thru 1988. The show starred Jane Wyman, Lorenzo Lamas, Robert Foxworth, and Susan Sullivan. The show was set in the Napa Valley of California. And centered on the power and intrigues of the families involved in the wine producing industry.