The Master Creators of Horror, Suspense and the Mysterious (1700 - Present)
by ramorama | created - 10 Mar 2015 | updated - 14 Mar 2015 | PublicThe greatest writers, producers, directors and artists of horror / suspense and mentions of their significant work.
Tracing it back to the romantic roots of the 18th century gothic novel and the 19th century penny dreadfuls. The subsequent revolutionary novels (Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).
Then Jack the Ripper and the birth of realism in modern day horror. The pulps, comics, to dramatic radio, television and cinema. It´s all there in historical order.
* If you feel a name is missing on this list. Please comment and I will get right on it!
1. Horace Walpole
Writer | Post Tenebras Lux
Horace Walpole was born on September 24, 1717 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Post Tenebras Lux (2017) and The Castle of Otranto (1977). He died on March 2, 1797 in London, England, UK.
(1764) The Castle of Otranto
2. Ann Radcliffe
Writer | Le confessional des pénitents noirs
Ann Radcliffe was born on July 9, 1764 in Holborn, London, England, UK. She was a writer, known for Le confessional des pénitents noirs (1977). She was married to William Radcliffe. She died on February 7, 1823 in London, England, UK.
(1794) The Mysteries of Ulopho (1796) The Italian
3. Matthew Lewis
Writer | Le moine
Matthew Lewis was born on July 9, 1775 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Monk (2011), Le moine (1972) and The Monk (1990). He died on May 16, 1818 in Atlantic Ocean.
(1797) The Monk
4. Marquis de Sade
Writer | Sinfonía erótica
Born a rich nobleman, Marquis being his title rather than his birth name, De Sade gradually became a decadent libertine among the French society of Louis XVI. A liberally educated iconoclast, he wrote prose and verse, and specialized in testing the limits of decency, breaking tabboos and shocking ...
5. Edgar Allan Poe
Writer | Stonehearst Asylum
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 ...
6. Mary Shelley
Writer | Young Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin; 30 August 1797 - 1 February 1851) was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel "Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus" (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her...
7. Sheridan Le Fanu
Writer | Mystery and Imagination
Sheridan Le Fanu was born on August 28, 1814 in Dublin, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. Sheridan was a writer, known for Mystery and Imagination (1966), The Judge's House and Vampyr (1932). Sheridan was married to Susanna Bennett. Sheridan died on February 7, 1873 in Dublin, Ireland, UK [now...
8. Jacob Grimm
Writer | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Jacob Grimm was a German folklorist, linguist, and philologist. He and his younger brother Wilhelm Grimm (1786 - 1859) co-operated in collecting, compiling, and revising German folk tales into "Grimms' Fairy Tales" (1812). By its final revised edition in 1857, the collection included 210 unique ...
(1812) Kinder und Hausmarchen
9. Wilhelm Grimm
Writer | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) was a German author and pioneering anthropologist. He was the younger brother of philologist Jacob Grimm.
Wilhelm was born in the town of Hanau, in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Holy Roman Empire. His parents were Philipp Wilhelm Grimm and his wife Dorothea Zimmer, ...
(1812) Kinder und Hausmarchen
10. Thomas Preskett Prest
Writer | Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood
Thomas Preskett Prest is known for Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood (2016).
Writer of penny dreadfuls and co-writer of (1947) Varney the Vampire (1850) The String of Pearls - The Barber of Fleet Street
11. James Malcolm Rymer
Writer | Cineficción Radio
James Malcolm Rymer is known for Cineficción Radio (2019) and Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood (2016).
Writer of penny dreadfuls and co-writer of (1947) Varney the Vampire (1850) The String of Pearls - The Barber of Fleet Street
12. Robert Louis Stevenson
Writer | Muppet Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer from Edinburgh. His most popular works include the pirate-themed adventure novel "Treasure Island" (1883), the poetry collection "A Child's Garden of Verses" (1885), the Gothic horror novella "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr ...
(1886) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
13. Oscar Wilde
Writer | The Picture of Dorian Gray
A gifted poet, playwright and wit, Oscar Wilde was a phenomenon in 19th-century England. He was illustrious for preaching the importance of style in life and art, and of attacking Victorian narrow-mindedness.
Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854. He studied at Trinity College in Dublin before ...
(1890) The Picture of Dorian Grey
14. Bram Stoker
Writer | Dracula
Bram Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1847, and gained fame for his novel "Dracula" about an aristocratic vampire in Transylvania. The sequel, "Dracula's Guest," was not published for 17 years after the publication of "Dracula," two years after Stoker's death. Stoker also wrote "The Mystery ...
(1897) Dracula
15. H.P. Lovecraft
Writer | Color Out of Space
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 ...
16. Clarence Aaron 'Tod' Robbins
Writer | Freaks
Clarence Aaron 'Tod' Robbins was born on June 25, 1888 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Freaks (1932), The Unholy Three (1925) and The Unholy Three (1930). He was married to Naomi Kathleen (Mollie) Adamson, Janet Lancey, Lillian Ames Chatman, Edith Norman Hyde ...
17. M.R. James
Writer | The Runes
Born in 1862, Montague Rhodes James developed a reading habit at an early age, preferring to stay in the library than with friends. He took this with him when he went to study at Eton and then at the King's College, Cambridge, where he became assistant in classical archaeology at the Fitzwilliam ...
18. F.W. Murnau
Director | Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
F.W. Murnau was a German film director. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air ...
19. Carl Theodor Dreyer
Writer | Gertrud
The illegitimate son of a Danish farmer and his Swedish housekeeper, Carl Theodor Dreyer was born in Copenhagen on the 3th of February, 1889. He spent his early years in various foster homes before being adopted by the Dreyers at the age of two. Contrary to popular belief (perhaps nourished by the ...
20. Tod Browning
Director | Dracula
Belonging to a well-situated family, Charles Browning fell in love at the age of 16 with a dancer of a circus. Following her began his itinerary of being clown, jockey and director of a variety theater which ended when he met D.W. Griffith and became an actor. He made his debut in Intolerance (1916)...
1. Freaks 2. The Unknown 3.
21. James Whale
Director | Bride of Frankenstein
James Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his four classic horror films: Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He also directed films in other genres, including what is ...
1. Frankenstein 2. The Bride of Frankenstein 3. The Old Dark House
22. José Mojica Marins
Actor | Encarnação do Demônio
José Mojica Marins was born on March 13, 1936 in San Paulo, Brazil, to a family of simple means. José's love of movies began at an early age. He spent a great deal of his time with his family at the local movie house, which his father helped manage. By the time he was eighteen, he had completed ...
23. Roger Corman
Actor | The Silence of the Lambs
Roger William Corman was born April 5, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan. Initially following in his father's footsteps, Corman studied engineering at Stanford University but while in school, he began to lose interest in the profession and developed a growing passion for film. Upon graduation, he worked a...
24. William Castle
Director | Homicidal
William Castle was born on April 24, 1914 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Homicidal (1961), House on Haunted Hill (1959) and The Lady from Shanghai (1947). He was married to Ellen. He died on May 31, 1977 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
25. Jean Rollin
Director | La nuit des traquées
Jean Rollin was born on November 3, 1938 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Night of the Hunted (1980). He was married to Simone Rollin. He died on December 15, 2010 in Paris, France.
26. Victor Salva
Writer | Powder
Born in Martinez, California, 20 miles outside San Francisco, Victor Salva had written and directed over 20 short and feature-length films before graduating from high school. In the mid-'80s his 37-minute short Something in the Basement (1986) took first place in the fiction category at the Sony/...
* 1. Jeepers Creepers * 2. Clownhouse
27. Rod Serling
Writer | The Twilight Zone
A former boxer, paratrooper and general all-around angry young man, Rod Serling was one of the radical new voices that made the "Golden Age" of television. Long before The Twilight Zone (1959), he was known for writing such high-quality scripts as "Patterns" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight," both ...
28. Terence Fisher
Director | Dracula
Terence Fisher was born in Maida Vale, England, in 1904. Raised by his grandmother in a strict Christian Scientist environment, Fisher left school while still in his teens to join the Merchant Marine. By his own account he soon discovered that a life at sea was not for him, so he left the service ...
29. Alfred Hitchcock
Director | Psycho
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and ...
30. Wyllis Cooper
Writer | Son of Frankenstein
Wyllis Oswald Cooper was born in Pekin, Illnois, USA and passed away in High Bridge, New Jersey, USA.
Cooper attended Pekin High School, graduating in 1916. He soon joined the U.S. Cavalry where, achieving the rank of Sergeant, he spent time on the Mexican border. In 1917, he became a part of the ...
(1934 - 1947) Lights Out (radio) (1947 - 1949) Quiet Please (radio) (1939) Son of Frankenstein (screenplay)
31. Shirley Jackson
Writer | The Haunting
Shirley Jackson was a horror and mystery writer born in San Francisco, California in 1916. She is best remembered for her unsettling novel of paranoia and the supernatural, 'The Haunting of Hill House' (1959) and her terrifying short story 'The Lottery' (1948), a horror tale rife with symbolism ...
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