Born Wesley Earl Craven, Wes Craven started out wanting to become a college professor, but soon ditched school to become a writer and director. Not only did he succeed, but he became one the most recognized names in the horror genre to the point as some may say, you can’t have Horror without Craven. In 1972, Craven emerged into filmaking with the sucessful film “Last house on the left”, and then in 1977 created the cult classic “The Hills Have Eyes” propelling his career even further. In 1984, Craven released “A Nightmare on Elm Street, along with it one of the most recognized and scariest movie villains in horror. Craven had signed away his rights to the movie in order for it to get made, so he never saw his share from $500 million the franchise made until many years later when he was able to renegotiate.. It wasn’t until his next big release in 1996 Craven saw major success with the release of “Scream” and all of it’s many sequels. He passed away in 2015 from brain cancer, and fans, friends, and other film industry workers paid tribute to him.