Don Coscarelli Jr. (born February 17, 1954) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in horror films. His directing credits include the first four films in the Phantasm franchise, as well as The Beastmaster (1982) and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).
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Biography
Coscarelli was born to Donald A. "Dac" Coscarelli Sr. (1928-2023) and Shirley Mae "Kate" Tyer (1927-1999) in Tripoli, Libya. His father was a West Point graduate, who later served in the US Air Force before becoming an investment manager. His mother Kate would become a successful novelist before her death due to ALS complications. After his father left the Air Force, the family relocated to Southern California. Although his parents were not connected with the motion picture business, he was fascinated with cameras and filmmaking at an early age. Long before he was old enough to attend film school, his short films, made with the help of neighborhood friends in his hometown of Los Alamitos, California, were winning prizes on television.
At the age of 19, Coscarelli became the youngest director to have a feature film distributed by a major studio when he sold his independently produced drama Jim the World's Greatest, to Universal Pictures. The film was the first collaboration for Coscarelli with actor Lawrence Rory Guy, who went on to achieve horror icon status under the screen name Angus Scrimm. Jim the World's Greatest was an official selection of the USA Film Festival.
Coscarelli is best known for Phantasm, and its sequels. The original film was a worldwide critical and box-office success and won the Special Jury Prize at the Festival du Cinema Fantastique at Avoriaz, France.
