Wes was born in Cleveland in 1939. After an unhappy childhood (he was raised in a Baptist family) he left Cleveland to study for a degree in English Literature, at Wheaton College, Illinois. But after illness, he left the school for one year before returning to study psychology. In 1963 he took a degree in writing and psychology and in 1964 he took a Masters from J. Hopkins University. While he was a humanities college teacher, Wes married Bonnie Broecker, mother of both his children, Jonathan and Jessica. But after few years, they separated and the children stayed with Bonnie.

Wes left his job as a teacher and after employment as taxi driver he became a sound editor for a post-production company in New York. And after the co-direction of Together with Sean S. Cunningham, Wes made the horror movie, Last House on the Left. The movie, released in August 1972, was a big success as was his second movie, The Hills Have Eyes, winning the critic's prize at the Sitges Film Festival.

Wes has gone onto win many more awards, including one for the best movie at the Avoriaz Film Festival for _Nightmare On Elm Street, A (1984)_ . In 1999 he directed Music of the Heart, a change of direction from the horror genre for which he is known.


Father of Jonathan Craven and Jessica Craven. "The" Elm Street is located in Potsdam, NY (a small town just south of the Canadian border). Craven was a Humanities Professor at Clarkson College, also in Potsdam. In 1976 he acted in "Tales That Will Tear Your Heart Out," a project being made under the supervision of friend Roy Frumkes, who was teaching at a state university at that time. Shortly after the filming, the raw stock was mistakingly re-exposed by another student, so both days' shooting were lost. He is an avid birdwatcher. He was the disc jockey for the campus radio station at Clarkson College, where he was a humanities professor. Directed a documentary about former president Bill Clinton. Craven and the film crew followed Clinton for three hours into the White House a few days before his departure. (January 2001) When actor-producer Robert Evans suffered a stroke May 6, 1998, Craven was having a drink with him in Evans' screening room when he collapsed in front of him. Evans later quipped, "I really scared the shit out of the king of horror." Developed the "evil house" premise for the computer game "Wes Craven's Principles of Fear." Although the game won About Game's Bronze Medal award for Interactive Fiction when the prototype was demonstrated at the 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Atlanta, the game was never completed, due to the financial failure of the game's publisher. His vision of Freddy Kruger came from a childhood memory. When he was 10 years old, he looked out the window of the apartment he lived in and a drunk man dressed similar to Freddy was looking directly at him and continued to stay there looking at the window for several minutes. This scared him, so, later on, he decided this will be the look for Freddy.