William Castle

A director who understood that a good gimmick could sell a mediocre horror movie better than a good review — he wired theater seats to buzz during The Tingler, offered "life insurance" against fright for Macabre, and rigged glow-in-the-dark skeletons to fly over audiences during House on Haunted Hill. Orphaned at eleven and out of school by fifteen, Castle worked his way up from the theater to Columbia Pictures on the strength of his promotional instincts alone, and his showmanship went on to influence Alfred Hitchcock, John Waters and Robert Zemeckis.