Considered one of the originators of Body Horror genre in cinema, David Cronenberg is a film director, writer, producer, and actor from Canada. His films explore the fear in human psyche by combining the psychological factors with the infections and physical transformations of the human body. However, He has grown over the genre that he created along the course of time. David’s films have been awarded many prestigious prizes and awards including the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
David Cronenberg’s Early Life
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David was born on the 15th of March 1943 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His father was a journalist and musician and his mother was a musician, writer, and editor. He showed his interest in music and literature from quite a young age. He began writing when he was a kid.
Education
David changed schools and attended North Toronto Collegiate Institute and Harbord Collegiate Institute before graduation from high school. In 1963, aged 20, he went to the University of Toronto to study science but changed his subject and graduated in Honors English Language and Literature.
Early Career
David’s friend and classmate, David Secter played a crucial role in making him a filmmaker. He introduced David to filmmaking and he immediately connected with the visual art form. David made two films, Transfer and From the Drain while he was in the university. He shot them on 16 mm films. With Iain Ewing and Ivan Reitman, he formed the Toronto Film Co-op which was inspired by the underground film scene of New York.
David Cronenberg’s Career
David is known as the King of Venereal Horror, the genre that he invented with other filmmakers in the first half of his career. He is also the founder of the Toronto Film Co-op. David has more than 42 projects under his name as a director. He has acted in 31 projects and written 33 films throughout his career.
Career as a Director
David started as a short filmmaker while he was a student at the university. However, he jumped into the world of feature films after his two short films as a director. He made Stereo (1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970) in the early days of his career. After that, he did not make any feature-length films for seven years. However, he directed numerous short TV movies and few TV series. He returned to big screens with Rabid in 1997. His film Scanners which released in 1981 made him a popular filmmaker in the market. The film did good business as well. He continued his journey as a director with other amazing and shocking projects like The Dead Zone (1983), Videodrome (1983), and The Fly (1986).
In the latter half of his career, he broke out of his comfort zone and made a more versatile identity for himself as a film director. He gained praises for his movies Dead Ringers (1988) and Naked Lunch (1991) from the international film community. His movie Crash that came out in 1996 got him the Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Career as a Writer
David has written numerous short films, television movies and feature films in his career. He writes most of his films himself. He likes to get involved in the writing process as it gives him a better perspective on the film that he is about to direct. David started writing since the beginning of his filmmaking career and has worked in more than 33 projects as a writer. He has also written a novel called Consumed which came out in 2014.
Career as an Actor
David appeared in his own films in his early years without credits. He started acting as a career with a film called Into the Night that released in 1985. Since then, he has appeared in more than 31 short films, TV movies, videos, and feature films. His latest work as an actor, a TV series called Alias Grace is projected to be aired in 2017.
David Cronenberg’s Personal Life
David currently lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two children. He has openly said that he is an atheist. He described the feeling of following any particular religion “claustrophobic and oppressive” and feels atheism to be “an acceptance of what is real”.
Married Life
David got divorced in 1979 ending his seven-year marital relationship with his first wife, Margaret Hindson. The got married 1972. They had a daughter from this marriage. They named her Cassandra Cronenberg. He remarried Carolyn Zeifman who worked as a production assistant on his film Rabid. They have a son and a daughter, Brandon, and Caitlin. His personal life and relationship with his first wife inspired his film Brood.
Social Reach
David is not very active on social media. However, people can find his information in his IMDB and Wikipedia page. Even though he does not tweet much, his twitter account has about 2700 followers.
David Cronenberg Net Worth
David has always worked as a creative person all his life. He never made films for the sake of money. However, he has managed to make a handsome amount for himself through his works. His total net worth is $15 million to date.
