Enthralled by science fiction and horror films as a boy, John Carpenter -- born Jan. 16, 1948, in Carthage, N.Y. -- began shooting his own 8mm action flicks at age 8. By the time he was in graduate school at the University of Southern California, he had started work on what would become his first feature, the sci-fi send-up Dark Star (1974).

Carpenter followed up with the 1976 thriller Assault on Precinct 13, which flopped commercially but earned critical acclaim in Europe. Two years later, he was offered a chance to helm an indie film about a babysitter killer: That picture -- Halloween -- became a blockbuster, introducing the world to Carpenter's comic-book style, fiendish pacing and mastery of action and suspense.

In the ensuing years, Carpenter has proved one of Hollywood's great genre directors with movies such as Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982) and They Live (1988).