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<html> <head> <title>John Carpenter</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css">  </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap>This is a beta version of NNDB</td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </form></td> </tr> </table>        </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/632/000032536/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0>John Carpenter<img src="carp.jpg" height=223 width=242 align=right hspace=10 vspace=10 alt="John Carpenter">AKA John Howard CarpenterBorn: <a href="/lists/533/000106215/" class=proflink>16-Jan</a>-<a href="/lists/947/000105632/" class=proflink>1948</a> Birthplace: <a href="/geo/849/000081606/" class=proflink>Carthage, NY</a> Gender: Male Religion: <a href="/lists/282/000069075/" class=proflink>Atheist</a> Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: <a href="/lists/166/000068959/" class=proflink>Film Director</a>Nationality: United States Executive summary: Escape from New YorkJohn Carpenter makes enjoyable popcorn movies, usually in the horror, suspense, or science fiction genres. He has made some of his best films while working on a tiny budget, and is generally credited with popularizing the camera's first-person killer perspective for Halloween, the film which introduced the now-clich閐 horror movie plot point that teenagers who have sex are doomed to grisly death. As a child, Carpenter started making short homemade movies with his father's 8mm camera before adolescence, inspired by low-budget sci-fi like It Came from Outer Space and Forbidden Planet. In his teens he wrote several issues of a mimeographed zine of monster movies, Fantastic Films Illustrated, and in college he co-wrote a 23-minute 1970 film, The Resurrection of Broncho Billy, which starred <a href="/people/325/000108998/">Johnny Crawford</a> and won the Oscar for Best Short Subject. Another college project, the cynical science-fiction comedy Dark Star, was a clever satire of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek that became popular with college screenings and midnight shows. Carpenter's first semi-commercial film, Assault on Precinct 13, was a non-stop action romp that told the story of a street gang attacking a police station, an obvious but inspired riff on <a href="/people/670/000032574/">Howard Hawks</a>'s classic western Rio Bravo. The creepy, thrilling, and surprisingly gore-free Halloween made a movie star of <a href="/people/749/000023680/">Jamie Lee Curtis</a>, and inspired dozens of weary imitators and half-hearted sequels. Reportedly made for $300,000, Halloween earned $75-million in its first theatrical run, and gave Carpenter a green light for almost any project that interested him. Over the next decade he delivered several outstanding and imaginative films -- the tale of sailors' revenge The Fog with <a href="/people/676/000024604/">Adrienne Barbeau</a>, the apocalyptic rescue romp Escape from New York with <a href="/people/906/000022840/">Kurt Russell</a> and <a href="/people/494/000086236/">Lee Van Cleef</a>, the knuckle-whitening re-make of The Thing with Russell and <a href="/people/418/000059241/">Keith David</a>, the optimistic sci-fi road movie Starman with <a href="/people/779/000022713/">Jeff Bridges</a> and <a href="/people/020/000098723/">Karen Allen</a>, the daft but delightful kung fu fest Big Trouble in Little China with Russell and <a href="/people/673/000023604/">Kim Cattrall</a>, and the politically subversive zombie movie They Live with <a href="/people/612/000023543/">Roddy Piper</a> chewing gum and kicking ass. Memoirs of an Invisible Man had the disadvantage of starring <a href="/people/499/000024427/">Chevy Chase</a>, but In the Mouth of Madness was a wonderfully evocative blurring of fiction within fiction, with <a href="/people/814/000024742/">Sam Neill</a> looking for the missing <a href="/people/340/000024268/">J黵gen Prochnow</a>. Since the mid-1990s, though, Carpenter's name above the title has seemed more a warning than a mark of quality. His Village of the Damned with <a href="/people/761/000022695/">Christopher Reeve</a> was a remake that did not measure up to the <a href="/people/728/000043599/">George Sanders</a> original, and Escape from L.A., Carpenter's sequel to his own Escape from New York, made audiences wonder whether he had lost his touch. His subsequent films, Vampires with <a href="/people/789/000024717/">James Woods</a> and <a href="/people/570/000025495/">Daniel Baldwin</a> and Ghosts of Mars with <a href="/people/269/000091993/">Natasha Henstridge</a>, have been poorly received. Without Carpenter at the helm, Hollywood has begun offering remakes of some of his best early work -- Assault on Precinct 13 with <a href="/people/884/000025809/">Ethan Hawke</a> and <a href="/people/836/000025761/">Laurence Fishburne</a>, The Fog with <a href="/people/521/000109194/">Maggie Grace</a>, and <a href="/people/185/000030095/">Rob Zombie</a>'s upcoming Halloween. Between his other efforts, Carpenter wrote the innocuous teen romance Zuma Beach starring <a href="/people/058/000022989/">Suzanne Somers</a>, the excellent made-for-TV thriller Someone's Watching Me starring <a href="/people/622/000024550/">Lauren Hutton</a>, and the effective big-screen nightmare The Eyes of Laura Mars starring <a href="/people/884/000022818/">Faye Dunaway</a>. He directed Elvis, the 1979 mini-series of <a href="/people/363/000024291/">Elvis Presley</a>'s life, starring Carpenter's frequent collaborator, Kurt Russell. In addition to his work as a writer, director, and occasional producer, Carpenter composes the music for most of his films, and often performs the score on digital instruments.Father: Howard Ralph Carpenter (head of music department, Western Kentucky University) Mother: Milton Jean Carter Carpenter (d. 2004) Girlfriend: Debra Hill (film producer, b. 1950, dated and cohabited in late 1970s) Wife: <a href="/people/676/000024604/">Adrienne Barbeau</a> (actress, m. 1979, div. 1984, one son) Son: John Cody Carpenter (rock'n'roll keyboardist, b. 7-May-1984) Wife: Sandy King (producer, b. 1952, m. 1990)     University: <a href="/edu/913/000104601/">Western Kentucky University</a>     University: <a href="/edu/515/000068311/">University of Southern California</a>     Risk Factors: <a href="/lists/778/000064586/">Smoking</a>     FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR     <a href="/films/034/000274209/">The Ward (13-Sep-2010)</a>     <a href="/films/181/000037070/">Ghosts of Mars (24-Aug-2001)</a>     <a href="/films/209/000037098/">Vampires (15-Apr-1998)</a>     <a href="/films/987/000032891/">Escape from L.A. (9-Aug-1996)</a>     <a href="/films/830/000040710/">Village of the Damned (28-Apr-1995)</a>     <a href="/films/662/000058488/">In the Mouth of Madness (3-Feb-1995)</a>     <a href="/films/231/000062045/">Body Bags (8-Aug-1993)</a>     <a href="/films/422/000040302/">Memoirs of an Invisible Man (28-Feb-1992)</a>     <a href="/films/014/000033912/">They Live (4-Nov-1988)</a>     <a href="/films/921/000033822/">Prince of Darkness (23-Oct-1987)</a>     <a href="/films/979/000037868/">Big Trouble in Little China (2-Jul-1986)</a>     <a href="/films/390/000034288/">Starman (14-Dec-1984)</a>     <a href="/films/090/000058913/">Christine (9-Dec-1983)</a>     <a href="/films/414/000034312/">The Thing (25-Jun-1982)</a>     <a href="/films/631/000032535/">Escape from New York (10-Jul-1981)</a>     <a href="/films/324/000037213/">The Fog (8-Feb-1980)</a>     <a href="/films/248/000062062/">Elvis (11-Feb-1979)</a>     <a href="/films/392/000078158/">Someone's Watching Me! (29-Nov-1978)</a>     <a href="/films/474/000033375/">Halloween (25-Oct-1978)</a>     <a href="/films/421/000037310/">Assault on Precinct 13 (Nov-1976)</a>     <a href="/films/711/000036603/">Dark Star (Apr-1974)</a>     FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR     <a href="/films/744/000386583/">Nightmare Factory (27-Oct-2011)</a> · Himself     <a href="/films/918/000266120/">Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (13-Oct-2006)</a> · Himself     <a href="/films/467/000252708/">The American Nightmare (11-Sep-2000)</a> · Himself     <a href="/films/830/000040710/">Village of the Damned (28-Apr-1995)</a> · Man at Gas Station Phone     <a href="/films/987/000041864/">The Silence of the Hams (13-Jul-1994)</a>     <a href="/films/231/000062045/">Body Bags (8-Aug-1993)</a>     <a href="/films/422/000040302/">Memoirs of an Invisible Man (28-Feb-1992)</a> · Helicopter Pilot     <a href="/films/719/000064527/">The Boy Who Could Fly (15-Aug-1986)</a> · The Coupe De Villes Official Website: <a href="http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/" target=_blank>http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/</a> <table> <tr> <td align=right valign=middle style="padding-right: 5px;">New! <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/" class="fotmlink" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #dd0000;">NNDB MAPPER</a></td> <td valign=middle align=right style="border-left: 1px solid #bbb; padding-left: 5px;">Create a map starting with</td> <td valign=middle align=right><a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=32536"><img src="/man.gif" border=0 style="padding: 2px;"></a></td> <td align=left valign=middle> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=32536">John Carpenter</a></td> </tr> </table> Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript. 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