John Carpenter

b. 1948

John Carpenter is an American filmmaker and composer known for his horror, action, and science fiction films, most notably the Halloween franchise. Carpenter's films are characterized by minimalist lighting, panoramic compositions, and distinctive scores.

They include box office hits such as Halloween (1978), one of the most successful independent films of all time, The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), and Starman (1984), as well as cult classics Dark Star (1974), The Thing (1982), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), and Escape from L.A (1996).

Raised in a musical home, Carpenter wrote or co-wrote the scores for nearly all his films. His early adoption of synthesizers inspired many electronic artists and recent reissues of several has reinvigorated public interest in his talents as a musician.

While his commercial film success peaked in the 1980s, Carpenter’s legacy as a legendary American filmmaker continues to grow. The U.S. Library of Congress selected Halloween for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2006, and in 2019 Carpenter was presented with the Golden Coach Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Selected Filmography

Halloween (1978)
The Fog (1980)
Escape from New York (1981)
The Thing (1982)
Starman (1984)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
They Live (1988)
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Village of the Damned (1995)
Escape from L.A. (1996)
Ghosts of Mars (2001)

Selected Discography

Lost Themes (2015)
Lost Themes II (2016)
Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998 (2017)
Lost Themes III: Alive After Death (2021)