Biography for
Rob Zombie More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

12 January 1965, Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA

Birth Name

Robert Bartleh Cummings

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Spouse

Sheri Moon Zombie

(31 October 2002 - present)

Trade Mark

Dreadlocks.

Gruff vocals.

Often casts Sid Haig, Sheri Moon Zombie, Bill Moseley and Tom Towles in his films.

Uses clips of old horror movies in his music videos and films.

Trivia

Brother Michael David Cummings is "Spider", lead singer of the metal band Powerman 5000.

He had originally written the script for The Crow: Salvation (2000), and was also supposed to direct and supervise the music for the movie. Continual clashes with the producers led to his being fired from the movie. The script he had written is now the script for Legend of the 13 Graves.

Owns the "Zombie A Go Go" record label.

Directs all his own music videos.

Once managed his brother's band, "Powerman 5000".

Has many tattoos and designed most of them.

His wife, Sheri Moon Zombie, is on cover of his "American Made Music to Strip By" album.

Designed a maze for Universal Studio's "Halloween Horror Nights" in 1999 and 2000.

Drew the hallucination scene in Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996).

Draws most of the illustrations on White Zombie's and his solo CD booklets.

Universal dropped his film debut House of 1000 Corpses (2003), fearing it would get a NC-17 rating.

Loves horror movies.

His film, House of 1000 Corpses (2003), was inspired mainly by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

He has a pair of boots that he's been wearing for over 20 years.

He is a big fan of horror/zombie movies.

Is friends with metal legend, Ozzy Osbourne.

Has a fascination with Charles Manson.

Collector of classic movie posters including horror films and the classic Marx Brothers films, after whom he named several of the characters in House of 1000 Corpses (2003) (Otis Driftwood, Captain Spaulding, etc.).

Is close friends with his hero, Alice Cooper.

Named his first heavy metal band White Zombie, after the Bela Lugosi film White Zombie (1932).

Wants to open up his own night club for unsigned acts.

Member of the unofficial "Splat Pack," a term coined by film historian Alan Jones in Total Film magazine for the modern wave of directors making brutally violent horror films. The other "Splat Pack" members are Alexandre Aja, Darren Lynn Bousman, Neil Marshall, Greg Mclean, Eli Roth, James Wan & Leigh Whannell.

Is an avid fan of "The Munsters" (1964).

Moved to New York at the age of 18.

Although his films tend to be very violent, he is a bigger fan of the horror films of the 30s and 40s than the later, more violent ones.

Long-time vegetarian.

Has a 12-foot stuffed bear in his living room. He also has a sarcophagus, an enormous Boris Karloff poster, a green, scaly Creature from the Black Lagoon statue, and real baby bats which have mounted and framed.

His parents were carnival workers.

In 2007, Forbes Magazine estimated his earnings for the year at $20 million.

Avoids doing casting himself or even giving himself cameos in any of his films. He has said that, as a director, he doesn't feel comfortable in front of the camera and generally feels that directors should focus on directing rather than being in the film.

Turned down the opportunity to direct Freddy vs. Jason (2003) to work on House of 1000 Corpses (2003).

Is close friends with Horror Hostess Icon Cassandra Peterson (Elvira).

Was rumored to be the director of The Evil Dead (2010).

Originally stated he would never do a sequel to Halloween (2007), until the studio decided to make Halloween II (2009). Then he signed on to write and direct, because he didn't want someone to ruin his vision. He did not sign on to direct the second sequel Halloween III (2011).

Personal Quotes

[On directing and working for film studios] "They hire you and suddenly they don't trust you. And you say 'Well, why did you hire me?' and they say 'We can't tell you.'"

[on killing off the lead characters in The Devil's Rejects (2005)] "That was always the ending and every actor had a complaint about that. I wanted to do it because it seems like nobody makes a movie anymore without a sequel set up. Lions Gate was like 'The franchise... It's gone.' But you know, that's the problem. I feel like there's never a definitive ending anymore. Every movie ends with the possibility of another one and it drives me crazy. I feel like, 'Why did I just invest two hours? It didn't even end.'"

I'd just be obsessed with a movie. I'd need more. So we'd make Super-8s at home. It's funny I should remake Halloween, because one of the movies I made as a kid in high school was a sequel to [Carpenter's] Escape from New York. Later, you know, I moved to New York to go to school, got kicked out, and worked as a bike messenger and on Pee-wee's Playhouse, and then started a band. Making movies seemed like, 'How do you do that? I don't even have money to eat. I'm not gonna make movies.' It's great now for kids, make some goofy movie, stick it on YouTube, and you're a hero. Back then, it was like: 'Man, I can't wait till I can save enough money to develop the film.'

I think so much about everything. I'm obsessive.

[on rushing Halloween II (2009) into production] That's the problem making a movie called Halloween: If you come out Nov. 1 or after, nobody cares. If it was called anything else, I'd be fine.

I met John Carpenter when he was making Escape from L.A. (1996). I see him every once in a while.

[on being asked if Halloween II (2009) is a remake of Halloween II (1981)] The answer is no. This movie has nothing to do with the movie that came out back in 1981. The only thing slightly the same is my film has a brief hospital scene at the top of the film and even that is 100% different. These are all new characters and all new situations. This is not a remake of a sequel, this is the continuing story of the Halloween (2007) I started. So hopefully that clears up that confusion.

[on returning to the Halloween franchise to direct Halloween II (2009)] When I finished Halloween (2007) I was so f**king burnt out that the thought of doing another seemed totally insane to me at the time. I was done. But after a year and a half break I started to think that maybe another one wasn't such a bad idea. I love the characters and felt that I had only just scratched the surface of what could be done with them. The basic story was out of the way and now the series could go anywhere. Seeing the aftermath of Michael's rampage through the eyes of Laurie and Loomis was very exciting to me. So I came back and now we have a movie. Never say never.

I'm not a big fan of the thought that you can become a star by winning a contest. I'm sort of old-fashioned. I think people need to get out there and they need to work and they need to do their music because they love it. If they become successful, then great, and if they are not, whatever. That's the way the chips may fall. I just get disgusted watching people crying that it should have been them, that they're a star, that they're special. You know what? F--k you!

It would be so cool to do something like, I don't know, "The Return of Frankenstein" but you do it so that the monster looks like it did in all the original Universal films. That would be so cool to go back and make a totally classic horror movie. Don't jazz it all up like Van Helsing (2004), but make something really classic. I think people would go for it.

[On the Laurie Strode character in Halloween II (2009)] It doesn't sound like a slasher movie, it sounds like a pretty interesting human drama to have this character wake up, most of the people around her are dead, her whole life is destroyed, and she just has to start dealing with it.

Where Are They Now

(November 2001) Released his third CD, titled "The Sinister Urge".

(October 2003) Released a best of record titled: "Past, Present & Future" Also this year House of 1000 Corpses (2003) soundtrack came out both from Geffen records.

(March 2006) Released new CD entitled Educated Horses. Currently touring North America in support of that CD.

(October 2008) Hosted AMC's "Fear Fest '08" during the Halloween season.

Browse biographies section by name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z