Post by Kaz ~:~ on Dec 10, 2016 9:11:20 GMT -6
Tobe Hooper Biography
Date of Birth 25 January 1943, Austin, Texas, USA
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Bio:
Before becoming a filmmaker, Tobe Hooper, a native of Austin, Texas, spent the 1960s as a college professor and documentary cameraman. In 1974, he organized a small cast that was made up of college teachers and students, and then he and Kim Henkel made The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). This film changed the horror film industry. Hooper based it upon the real-life killings of Ed Gein, a cannibalistic killer responsible for the grisly murders of several people in the 1950s. Hooper's success with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" landed him in Hollywood and it remains a horror-film classic. Hooper rejoined the cast of "Texas" and with Kim Henkle again for Eaten Alive (1976), a gory horror film with Mel Ferrer, Carolyn Jones, William Finley, and Marilyn Burns (who played the lead in "Chainsaw"). The film centered around a caretaker of a motel who feeds his guests to his pet alligator. Also in the film was Robert Englund, whom Hooper helped advance his career and worked with him again in the future. "Eaten Alive" also won many awards at Horror Film Festivals.
Hooper was assigned to the Film Ventures International production of The Dark (1979), a science-fiction thriller. After only three day, he was fired from the film and replaced with John Cardos. Instead, Hooper had greater success with Stephen King's 1979 mini series Salem's Lot (1979). In 1981, Hooper directed the teen-slasher film The Funhouse (1981) for Universal Pictures. Despite its success, "The Funhouse" was a minor disappointment. In 1982, Hooper found greater success when Steven Spielberg hired him to direct his production of Poltergeist (1982) for MGM. It quickly became a top-ranking major motion picture, despite some differences that were resolved by Spielberg himself taking over Hooper's directing duties.
"Poltergeist" was perhaps a greater success than "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," but it was three years until Hooper found work again. He signed a three-year contract with Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus's Cannon Group, and directed more films, including Lifeforce (1985), the minor remake of Invaders from Mars (1986), and the disappointing sequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). Since then, Hooper's career has gone downhill. He also directed two more Robert Englund films, Night Terrors (1993) and The Mangler (1995), in 1995 and he has also directed numerous horror television sitcoms. Recently, Hooper was asked to write a new script for Michael Bay's remake of Hooper's original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was released in 2003.
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Music video: Directed the video "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol.
Father of William Hooper and Tony Hooper.
Was inducted into the inaugural class of the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival Hall of Fame on October 22, 2005, in Tempe, Arizona.
The three films he made for Cannon--Lifeforce (1985), Invaders from Mars (1986) and The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)--were all drastically re-cut by the producers and failed at the box office. Hooper then began working in television, where he's stayed, with only a few exceptions, since the late '80s.
Was fired, in mid-production, from two films--The Dark (1979) and Venom (1981)--before directing Poltergeist (1982), his biggest success to date.
Turned down the offer to direct Wolfen (1981).
Had worked on a sequel to his The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) in 1980 with screenwriter John Milius. Although that project fell through, Hooper would eventually direct a sequel in 1986 for Cannon.
Was originally offered the script for Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) but turned it down. Spielberg then suggested Hooper direct Poltergeist (1982), a project he had written himself and had planned on directing. Hooper took the job and Spielberg himself directed "E.T.".
Unlike his near contemporaries such as George A. Romero and Wes Craven, who have always longed to work outside the horror genre but have been creatively pigeonholed to stay within it by happenstance and the film industry, Hooper has always been attracted almost solely to horror and science-fiction films.
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Director::
2013 Djinn
2009 Destiny Express Redux
2005-2006 Masters of Horror (TV Series) (2 episodes)
- The Damned Thing (2006)
- Dance of the Dead (2005)
2005/I Mortuary
2004 Toolbox Murders
2002 Taken (TV Mini-Series) (1 episode)
- Beyond the Sky (2002)
2002 Night Visions (TV Series) (2 episodes)
- Cargo (2002)
- The Maze (2002)
2002 Shadow Realm (TV Movie) (segment "The Maze")
2000 Crocodile (Video)
2000 The Others (TV Series) (1 episode)
- Souls on Board (2000)
1999 The Apartment Complex (TV Movie)
1998 Prey (TV Series) (1 episode)
- Hungry for Survival: Unaired Pilot (1998)
1997 Perversions of Science (TV Series) (1 episode)
- Panic (1997)
1996 Dark Skies (TV Series) (1 episode)
- The Awakening (1996)
1995 Nowhere Man (TV Series) (2 episodes)
- Turnabout (1995)
- Absolute Zero (1995)
1995 The Mangler
1993 Night Terrors
1993 Body Bags (TV Movie) (segment "Eye")
1991 Tales from the Crypt (TV Series) (1 episode)
- Dead Wait (1991)
1991 Haunted Lives: True Ghost Stories (TV Mini-Series documentary) (1 episode)
- Ghosts R Us/Legend of Kate Morgan/School Spirit (1991)
1990 I'm Dangerous Tonight (TV Movie)
1990 Spontaneous Combustion
1988 Freddy's Nightmares (TV Series) (1 episode)
- No More Mr. Nice Guy (1988)
1988 The Equalizer (TV Series) (1 episode)
- No Place Like Home (1988)
1987 Amazing Stories (TV Series) (1 episode)
- Miss Stardust (1987)
1986 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
1986 Invaders from Mars
1985 Lifeforce
1982 Poltergeist
1981 The Funhouse
1979 Salem's Lot (TV Movie)
1979 The Dark (replaced by John Cardos, uncredited)
1976 Eaten Alive
1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
1969 Eggshells
1964 The Heisters (Short)