David Cronenberg

On this date in 1943, filmmaker David Cronenberg was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His father was a journalist and his mother played piano. Cronenberg graduated from Toronto University with a degree in literature, but in college had discovered filmmaking. Although dubbed a "horrormeister" by some, Cronenberg denies that he directs "horror" movies. They include: "Shivers" (1975), "The Brood" (1979), "Rabid" (1977), "Scanners" ("Be afraid, be very afraid," 1981), "Videodrome" (1983), Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" (1983) with Christopher Walken, "The Fly" (1986) with Jeff Goldblum, "Dead Ringers" (1988) with Jeremy Irons, "Naked Lunch" (1991), "Crash" (1996), and "eXistenZ" (1999) with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law. Cronenberg told Film Threat (February 1997) that his parents were atheists, and so is he. "I'm simply a nonbeliever and have been forever. . . . I'm interested in saying, 'Let us discuss the existential question. We are all going to die, that is the end of all consciousness. There is no afterlife. There is no God. Now what do we do.' That's the point where it starts getting interesting to me."