Halloween with Freddy Krueger

Tonight, children dress up and call or knock on the doors of neighbouring houses decorated with pumpkins and lights after dark. They shout 'trick or treat', and get lots of sweets. Traditionally, Halloween was celebrated in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. On the island of Great Britain, Halloween was mainly celebrated by the Celts. They believed that on that day, the spirits of all those who had died in the previous year returned to try and take possession of a living body for the coming year. The spirits that would rise from dead people were attracted by placing food in front of the doors for them. To ward off evil spirits, however, the Celts wore masks.

From the 1980s onwards, Halloween increasingly became a celebration for adults too. The dressing up and the creepy aspect became more and more important and Halloween parties gained popularity also in Europe, Latin America, Australia, and East Asia. One of the reasons for this popularity is the horror film Halloween (1978) by John Carpenter. The film is one of the founding fathers of the slasher film genre. Ten sequels and remakes of different parts of Halloween were made up until 2018. But in this post, Freddy Krueger is the guest star. Freddy is the iconic boogeyman of the slasher genre. Robert Englund played him in the hit A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) by Wes Craven and its seven sequels plus a television series.


Vintage postcard. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Ann Miller (1923-2004) was an American dancer, singer, and actress. She was famed for her speed in tap dancing and her style of glamour: massive black bouffant hair, heavy makeup with a splash of crimson lipstick, and fashions that emphasized her lithe figure and long dancer's legs. 


American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 105-093, 1990. Photo: The Fourth New Line - Heron Venture. Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.


German collectors card in the Moderne Schönheitsgalerie series by Ross Verlag for Kurmark Edelzigarette, no. 142. Photo: Paramount.

Ida Lupino (1918-1995) was an English-American actress and singer, who became a pioneering director and producer - the only woman working within the 1950s Hollywood studio system to do so. 

A Walk Down Elm Street with the Man of Your Dreams

Robert Barton Englund was born in 1947 in Glendale, California, to Janis (MacDonald) and John Kent Englund, an aviation engineer who was involved in the development of the Lockheed U-2. At age 12, Robert began acting classes at California State University - Northridge in a youth program. While still in high school, he took acting classes at Cranbrook Theatre School, an initiative of the Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He then studied at California State University, where he received his bachelor's degree in Arts in theatre, and then at Oakland University, where he gained experience at the Meadow Brook Theatre, then a branch of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

His first major theatre role was in an adaptation of 'Godspell' in 1972. Afterward, Englund had five successful years performing in regional theatre including plays by William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. He auditioned for a role in the film Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973). He did not get the part but decided to stay in Los Angeles. In 1974, he made his film debut in the film Buster and Billie (Daniel Petrie, 1974), starring Jan-Michael Vincent. Since then, Englund has appeared in over 75 feature films and starred in four TV series.

He played smaller parts in such productions as the crime film Hustle (Robert Aldrich, 1975) with Burt Reynolds and Catherine Deneuve, the comedy Stay Hungry (Bob Rafelson, 1976) with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jeff Bridges, and the adventure film St. Ives (J. Lee Thompson, 1976) with Charles Bronson. That year he also appeared in the Horror film Eaten Alive (Tobe Hooper, 1976) where Englund played a libidinous maniac. He then played Ranger in Galaxy of Terror (Bruce D. Clark, 1981), produced by Roger Corman. He gained his first fame for his role of Visitor technician and resistance fighter Willie in the Miniseries V (Kenneth Johnson, 1983) as well as the sequel V: The Final Battle (1984), and V: The Series, in which he was a regular cast member.

In 1984 Robert Englund achieved international fame as the iconic boogeyman, Freddy Krueger, in the hit horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984) opposite Johnny Depp. He also starred in its seven sequels. He was nominated for a Saturn Award for that role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (Chuck Russell, 1987) and in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (Renny Harlin, 1988). He also appeared in the television series Freddy's Nightmares (1988).

His association with the genre led him to top-billed roles in other Horror films such as The Phantom of the Opera (Dwight H. Little, 1989) as the Phantom, The Mangler (Tobe Hooper, 1995), Urban Legend (Jamie Blanks, 1998) starring Jared Leto, and 2001 Maniacs (Tim Sullivan, 2005). Englund has also guest-starred in hundreds of hours of TV, most recently in Bones, Criminal Minds, and Hawaii 5-0. His memoir, 'Hollywood Monster: A Walk Down Elm Street with the Man of Your Dreams,' which Alan Goldsher transcribed from his dictations, was published in 2009. In 2001, he received a Saturn Award for his entire oeuvre. In 1968, Englund married nurse Elizabeth Gardner. They divorced in 1972. He was then married to actress Roxanne Rogers from 1986 till 1988. He met his third wife, set decorator Nancy Booth while working on his feature directorial debut 976-EVIL (1988). They married that same year. In 2008, he directed his second film, Killer Pad, which was released directly on DVD.


American postcard by Classico, San Francisco, no. 105-100, 1990. Photo: The Fourth New Line - Heron Venture, 1984. Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.


American postcard by Classico, San Francisco, no. 105-94, 1990. Photo: The Fourth New Line - Heron Venture, 1984. Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.


Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A-132. Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger and Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984).


Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Paramount.


Italian postcard by PMCE (Piccoli, Milano), no. 595/1.

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch, German and English), and IMDb.