John Carpenter

For other people named John Carpenter, see John Carpenter (disambiguation).

John Carpenter
Carpenter in 2023
Born (1948-01-16) January 16, 1948 (age 76)
Carthage, New York, U.S.
Other names
  • John T. Chance
  • Martin Quatermass
Occupations
  • Filmmaker
  • composer
  • actor
Years active1969–present
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1979; div. 1984)​
​
​
(m. 1990)​
ChildrenCody Carpenter
Websitetheofficialjohncarpenter.com
Signature

John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is generally recognized as a master of the horror genre.[1] At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the French Directors' Guild gave him the Golden Coach Award and lauded him as "a creative genius of raw, fantastic, and spectacular emotions".[2][3]

Carpenter's early films included critical and commercial successes such as Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), and Starman (1984). Though he has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker, his other productions from the 1970s and the 1980s only later came to be considered cult classics; these include Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), and Escape from L.A. (1996). He returned to the Halloween franchise as a composer and executive producer on Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022).

Carpenter usually composes or co-composes the music in his films. He won a Saturn Award for Best Music for the soundtrack of Vampires (1998) and has released five studio albums: Lost Themes (2015), Lost Themes II (2016), Anthology: Movie Themes 1974–1998 (2017), Lost Themes III: Alive After Death (2021), and Lost Themes IV: Noir (2024). Since 2012, he has co-owned the comic book company Storm King Comics alongside his wife, film producer Sandy King.[4]

  1. ^ Jason Zinoman (June 24, 2011). "A Lord of Fright Reclaims His Dark Domain". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Chu, Henry (March 28, 2019). "Cannes: John Carpenter to Receive Golden Coach Award at Directors' Fortnight". Variety. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  3. ^ Cotton, Johnny (May 15, 2019). "Cult horror director John Carpenter honored at Cannes". Reuters. Retrieved June 9, 2020.
  4. ^ "About Us". Stormkingcomics.com.