John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky University and then USC film school in Los Angeles. He began
making short films in 1962, and won an Academy Award for Best
Live-Action Short Subject in 1970, for
The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970), which he made while at USC. Carpenter formed a band
in the mid-1970s called The Coupe de Villes, which included future directors
Tommy Lee Wallace and
Nick Castle. Since the 1970s, he has
had numerous roles in the film industry including writer, actor,
composer, producer, and director. After directing
Dark Star (1974), he has helmed both classic horror films like
Halloween (1978),
The Fog (1980), and
The Thing (1982), and noted sci-fi tales like
Escape from New York (1981) and
Starman (1984).