His theatrical work would come to a close as he shifted focus to writing the Books of Blood.īarker is an author of horror and fantasy. įrom 1982 to 1983, he also created three plays, including Crazyface, for the Cockpit Youth Theatre. Over the next five years Barker would write nine plays, often serving as director, including some of his most well-known stage productions, The History of The Devil, Frankenstein in Love, and The Secret Life of Cartoons. Doug Bradley would take on the iconic role of Pinhead in the Hellraiser series while Peter Atkins would write the scripts for the first three Hellraiser sequels. He co-founded the avant-garde theatrical troupe The Dog Company in 1978 with former school friends and up and coming actors, many of whom would go on to become key collaborators in Barker's film work. He collaborated on six plays with Theatre of the Imagination in 1974 and two more that he was the sole writer of, A Clowns' Sodom and Day of the Dog, for The Mute Pantomime Theatre in 19. Theatrical work īarker's involvement in live theatre began while still in school with productions of Voodoo and Inferno in 1967. He later alluded to Valentin in many of his stories. When he was three, Barker witnessed the French skydiver Léo Valentin plummet to his death during a performance at an air show in Liverpool. He was educated at Dovedale Primary School, Quarry Bank High School and the University of Liverpool, where he studied English and philosophy. He has also created characters and series for comic books, and some of his more popular horror stories have been featured in ongoing comics series.īarker was born in Liverpool, the son of Joan Ruby (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. He was also an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.īarker's paintings and illustrations have been shown in galleries in the United States, and have appeared in his books. His fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser series, the first installment of which he also wrote and directed, and the Candyman series.

He has since written many novels and other works. Barker at the Science Fiction Museum in 2007Īuthor, film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, playwright, painter, illustrator, visual artist, game producer, comic writer and comic artistĬlive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer.

Barker the forbidden