Robert Barton Englund (born 6 June 1947 in Glendale, California, USA) is an American actor, voice actor, singer and director, best known for playing the infamous serial killer Freddy Krueger in the
Nightmare on Elm Street film series.
Englund appeared in
Stay Hungry (1976) alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and in the 1977 film
Eaten Alive directed by Tobe Hooper. He then played Ranger in
Galaxy of Terror, produced by Roger Corman, which was released in 1981. Since then, Englund has made over 100 appearances on film and television. In his early film roles Englund was usually typecast as a nerd or a redneck, and he first gained attention in the role of Visitor technician and resistance fighter Willie in the 1983 miniseries
V, as well as the 1984 sequel
V: The Final Battle, and
V: The Series, in which he was a regular cast member.
But after such typecasting, Englund went against type when he accepted the role of Freddy Krueger, the psychotic burn victim and child murderer in Wes Craven's hugely successful
A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984.
His association with the genre led him to top-billed roles in
The Phantom of the Opera (1989),
The Mangler (1995) – another film directed by Tobe Hooper, and
2001 Maniacs (2005). He reprised his role as Freddy Krueger in
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985),
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987),
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988),
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989),
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991),
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) and
Freddy vs. Jason (2003). Englund made his directorial debut with the 1988 horror film
976-EVIL.
I met Robert at Collectormania Glasgow in August 2007, at the Entertainment Media Show in London in October 2012 and at Film & Comic Con Glasgow in August 2015.
Links:
IMDb
Wikipedia
Official website
