Iconic horror director Wes Craven dies at 76

Wes Craven.
(Image credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Writer-director Wes Craven, best known for the blockbuster Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream movies, died Sunday in Los Angeles from brain cancer. He was 76.

His family confirmed Craven's death Sunday evening. Craven started working in academia, then left to pursue a career in Hollywood. His first feature film, Last House on the Left, came out in 1972. Craven came up with the idea for the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, which were released from 1984 to 1989, when he was growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, The Hollywood Reporter says, and lived next to a cemetery.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.