- This article is about the director, for the composer see John Alden Carpenter.
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film music composer.
Born in Carthage, New York and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky, he attended Western Kentucky University (where his father was director of the music department) and later the University of Southern California, where he won an Academy Award for his student film The Resurrection Of Broncho Billy. Considered by many to be the greatest director of modern horror, he has in fact made movies in a number of other genres. Following the box office failure of his big budget action comedy "Big Trouble in Little China" he has struggled to get films financed but many of his films are considered classics and are due to be subjects of big budget remakes.
He describes himself as having been influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, and The Twilight Zone.
Some of the films that John Carpenter was attached to at one point but eventually left were Fatal Attraction, The Golden Child, No Way Out, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Deal of the Century, Armed & Dangerous, Firestarter and The Philadelphia Experiment.
Many horror/sci-fi/indie filmmakers have expressed admiration for Carpenter's work, from Robert Rodriguez to Guillermo Del Toro to Quentin Tarantino to even the critically-praised Paul Thomas Anderson of Boogie Nights and Magnolia fame.
Filmography as director
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