At a glance
| Born | June 6, 1947, Glendale, California |
| Known for | Freddy Krueger |
| Role | Actor, director |
Overview
Robert Englund plays Freddy Krueger. The character page on this site covers the burned janitor and the glove. This page is the actor. Englund is in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and the sequels through Freddy’s Dead, plus Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and Freddy vs. Jason. He is not in the 2010 remake. Jackie Earle Haley is. The makeup took hours. The jokes, which got broader as the series went on, were his as much as the writers’.
Career
Englund worked in film and television before the glove. V, the science-fiction miniseries, made him a recognizable face as a friendly alien. Nightmare on Elm Street hid the face and made him more famous. Wes Craven cast him after seeing a tape. The hat and sweater were already chosen. Englund added the walk and the voice, which starts quieter in the first film and becomes a catchphrase machine by part 4.
He directed 976-EVIL (1988) and has spent decades at conventions as Freddy without always wearing the makeup. New Nightmare casts him as himself and as Freddy, which is the film that treats the actor as part of the fiction. Freddy vs. Jason (2003) is the last time he played the role in a feature. He has been public about the makeup process and about not wanting to do it forever. Other credits include The Phantom of the Opera (1989) and a long list of horror guest parts.
Freddy credits
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) through Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
- Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
- Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
- Not the 2010 remake
Trivia
- The character page is Freddy Krueger. This page is the man who played him.
- Makeup sessions ran about three hours on the later films.
- He appears as himself in New Nightmare, then crosses into the role.
- The one-liners increase after the first film. Craven’s original Freddy talks less.
- He has said Haley’ s remake Freddy is a different performance, not a replacement he needed to compete with.