John Carpenter

John Carpenter (born 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer and actor, most often associated with horror, action and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s and widely regarded as a master of the horror genre. His early successes include Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981) and Starman (1984), and films such as Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13, The Thing, Christine, Big Trouble in Little China, They Live and In the Mouth of Madness were later recognized as cult classics. He usually composes or co-composes the music for his own films, has released several studio albums beginning with Lost Themes in 2015, and returned to the Halloween franchise as composer and executive producer. In 2019 the French Directors Guild gave him its Golden Coach Award at Cannes, and in 2025 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.