Edward D. Wood Jr.

Career overview

Edward Davis Wood, Jr., also known as Ed Wood or Ed W, was born on October 10, 1924, in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA, and died on December 10, 1978, at the age of 54. Wood was an American screenwriter, director, producer, actor, author, and editor who frequently performed many of these functions simultaneously. He amassed 69 known credits in his career and was known for writing.

During the 1950s, Wood made a number of cheap genre films. His projects featured technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, large amounts of ill-fitting stock footage, idiosyncratic dialogue, eccentric casts, and outlandish plot elements. Despite these qualities, his flair for showmanship gave his projects at least a modicum of critical success. His popularity waned soon after his biggest name star, Béla Lugosi, died, though he was able to salvage a saleable feature from Lugosi's last work.

Wood is also known by alternative names including Daniel Davis, Edward Davi, Edward Everett, Flint Holloway, Pete LaRoche, Don Miller, Akdon Telmig, Dick Trent, Edw. D. Wood Jr., Ed Wood Jr., Ed Woods, and The World's Worst Director. Decades after his passing, his life and career inspired the 1994 biographical American comedy-drama film titled Ed Wood, directed and produced by Tim Burton, in which Johnny Depp portrayed the cult director.