DIRECTOR · BORN 1948
John Carpenter
- Born
- 16 January 1948
41 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (41)
- #001
John Carpenter based Michael Myers, the iconic killer of Halloween (1978), on a thirteen-year-old boy he saw at a mental hospital during a school trip.
- #002
Carpenter praised his longtime friend and frequent collaborator Kurt Russell as a hardworking, professional actor unafraid to take on roles that could damage his image or make him look foolish.
- #003
In a 1982 interview, Carpenter said he believed the R rating for Halloween (1978) was justified, but that The Fog (1980) should have been rated PG.
- #004
Carpenter is a passionate fan of the Godzilla films and considers the first Godzilla film (Godzilla (1954)) an inspiration to him.
- #005
Carpenter named his six favorite films as Only Angels Have Wings (1939), Citizen Kane (1941), Vertigo (1958), Rio Bravo (1959), Blow-Up (1966) and Black Christmas (1974).
- #006
In an interview, Carpenter said he takes most of the failures in his films quite heavily on himself, but claimed that among all the films he made, the failure he struggled with most was The Thing (1982).
- #007
Carpenter is a big fan of Sergio Leone and cast Lee Van Cleef in Escape from New York (1981) because of Van Cleef's work with Leone.
- #008
Carpenter turned down the chance to direct Top Gun (1986), which went to Tony Scott.
- #009
Carpenter directed two films selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant": Halloween (1978) and The Thing (1982).
- #010
Carpenter rarely made sequels to his films, with the exception of Escape from L.A. (1996). He said he was forced to write Halloween II (1981) but refused to direct it because he "didn't want to direct the same movie again".
- #011
Carpenter acted in his own films The Fog (1980), Starman (1984), Body Bags (1993) and Village of the Damned (1995) under the name Rip Haight.
- #012
Carpenter turned down the chance to direct Zombieland (2009), which went to Ruben Fleischer.
- #013
Carpenter is a big fan of Howard Hawks, Elvis Presley and The Beach Boys. He loves vintage Cadillac cars.
- #014
Carpenter was originally set to direct Firestarter (1984) and even had a script written by Bill Lancaster. Both were replaced after The Thing (1982), on which the two had worked together, performed poorly at the box office.
- #015
Carpenter considers it bad luck to wear the hat of the production he is working on. "I won't wear a crew hat until the film is finished."
- #016
In Change of Habit (1969), Elvis Presley plays a character named John Carpenter. In 1979, Carpenter directed the television film Elvis (1979), starring his close friend Kurt Russell.
- #017
Carpenter is a big fan of video games, claiming his son Cody Carpenter got him addicted to them when Cody was a child. The two spent time playing early games such as Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) together. To this day he continues to play video games both with his son and on his own. As of 2021, his recent favorites include Dishonored (2012), Assassin's Creed III (2012), the God of War (2005) Collection and Halo Infinite (2021). He can often be seen with his son at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
- #018
Carpenter is close friends with actor Jeff Bridges.
- #019
Carpenter turned down the chance to direct Fatal Attraction (1987), which went to Adrian Lyne.
- #020
John Carpenter has always claimed that the Western is his favorite genre, yet he has never made a feature-length film in that genre.
- #021
Among the fans of John Carpenter's work are directors Bertrand Bonello, Tom Tykwer, Bong Joon Ho, Jeff Nichols, Olivier Assayas, Alice Winocour, Gaspar Noé, Jeremy Saulnier and Jordan Peele, all of whom say he was an inspiration for some of their own work. Composer Hans Zimmer was one of his first fans and said that Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) is his favorite film theme of all time. Another fan is the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who is particularly fond of They Live (1988).
- #022
John Carpenter directed an Oscar-nominated performance: Jeff Bridges in Starman (1984).
- #023
In his second feature film, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), John Carpenter directed child actress Kim Richards, and in his next film, Halloween (1978), he directed Kim's sister Kyle Richards.
- #024
John Carpenter was offered the chance to direct Eddie Murphy's The Golden Child (1986), but he turned it down.
- #025
John Carpenter likes to begin a shot behind a character as they walk away from the camera, thereby revealing the setting. Examples appear in Christine (1983), Prince of Darkness (1987) and They Live (1988), among others.
- #026
Two of John Carpenter's films are listed in the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider): Halloween (1978) and The Thing (1982).
- #027
John Carpenter holds a commercial pilot's license for rotorcraft helicopters.
- #028
John Carpenter has a son with Adrienne Barbeau: Cody Carpenter (born John Howard Carpenter Jr.).
- #029
John Carpenter is a big fan of the Quatermass films (The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Five Million Years to Earth (1967)); he wrote Prince of Darkness (1987) under the pseudonym Martin Quatermass, and the village in In the Mouth of Madness (1994) takes its name from a train station in "Quatermass and the Pit".
- #030
John Carpenter is a big NBA fan and installed a satellite dish on his trailer so he could follow the games. He always keeps a portable basketball hoop on location.
- #031
In an interview, John Carpenter said he nearly directed Tombstone (1993).
- #032
John Carpenter currently lives in West Hollywood, California.
- #033
John Carpenter was offered the chance to score Planet Terror (2007) for Robert Rodriguez, but he was busy completing post-production on Masters of Horror (2005).
- #034
John Carpenter was offered the chance to direct The Exorcist III (1990), which went to William Peter Blatty.
- #035
On April 3, 2025, John Carpenter was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The Walk of Fame star is located in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
- #036
Carpenter's character Snake Plissken (Escape from New York (1981) and Escape from L.A. (1996)) is being turned into a comic book. The book, published by Code 6 Comics under the CrossGen imprint, will be known as "John Carpenter's The Snake Plissken Chronicles" and will begin publication in 2003.
- #037
John Carpenter was offered the chance to direct Armed and Dangerous (1986) and turned it down. The job went to Mark L. Lester, who also directed Firestarter (1984), which had been offered to Carpenter.
- #038
John Carpenter was given the chance to direct Mutant Chronicles (2008).
- #039
John Carpenter is the godfather of musician and composer Daniel A. Davies.
- #040
The biography is as follows: John Wakeman, editor. World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985. pp. 184-189. New York: H. W. Wilson Company (1988).
- #041
At one point it was decided to direct Ghosts of Mars with Ice Cube, Jason Statham and, if she accepted the fee, probably Courtney Cox in the lead roles.
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