Legendary horror director Wes Craven, 76, best known for the Scream films and the Nightmare on Elm Street series, succumbed to brain cancer, Sunday, at his Los Angeles home.
The versatile filmmaker who created the Freddy Krueger character from Nightmare on Elm Street and Ghostface in Scream, also wrote and produced features, directed for television and wrote novels.
Craven’s 1984 iconic A Nightmare on Elm Street is credited with having started the “dream reality” style of 1980s horror filmmakers and helped launch independent film studio New Line Cinema, which is sometimes referred to as “the house that Freddy built.”
Born August 2, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio, Wes Craven also served as a long-time member of the Audubon California Board of Directors.
The fimmaker is survived by his wife, producer and former Disney Studios VP Iya Labunka; sister Carol Buhrow; son Jonathan Craven; daughter Jessica Craven; stepdaughter Nina Tarnawksy and three grandchildren.
