35 Facts About Clive Barker

Clive Barker was born on 5 October 1952 and 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.

Clive Barker has since written many novels and other works.

Clive Barker's fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser series, the first installment of which he wrote and directed, and the Candyman series.

Clive Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Clive Barker has created characters and series for comic books, and some of his more popular horror stories have been featured in ongoing comics series.

Clive Barker was born in Liverpool, the son of Joan Ruby, a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Clive Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm.

Clive Barker was educated at Dovedale Primary School, Quarry Bank High School and the University of Liverpool, where he studied English and philosophy.

When he was three, Clive Barker witnessed the French skydiver Leo Valentin plummet to his death during a performance at an air show in Liverpool.

Clive Barker later alluded to Valentin in many of his stories.

Clive Barker 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 1976 and 1977.

Clive Barker 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.

Clive Barker began writing horror early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game.

Clive Barker is the writer of the best-selling Abarat series.

Clive Barker is critical of organized religion, but has said that the Bible influences his work and spirituality.

Clive Barker has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his voice has improved as a result.

Clive Barker said he did not have cancer, and has given up cigars.

Clive Barker later spent 13 years with photographer David Armstrong, described as his husband in the introduction to Coldheart Canyon; they separated in 2009.

Clive Barker wrote the screenplays for Underworld and Rawhead Rex, both directed by George Pavlou.

Clive Barker had been working on a series of film adaptations of his The Abarat Quintet books under The Walt Disney Company's management, but due to creative differences, the project was cancelled.

Clive Barker served as an executive producer for the 1998 film Gods and Monsters, a semi-fictional tale of Frankenstein director James Whale's later years, which won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

In October 2006, Clive Barker announced through his website that he will be writing the script to a forthcoming remake of the original Hellraiser film.

Clive Barker was developing a film based on his Tortured Souls line of toys from McFarlane Toys.

In 2020, Clive Barker regained control of the Hellraiser franchise, and served as executive producer on a 2022 reboot film for the streaming service Hulu.

In May 2015, Variety reported that Clive Barker was developing a television series adaptation of various creepypastas in partnership with Warner Brothers, to be called Clive Barker's Creepypastas, a feature arc based on Slender Man and Ben Drowned.

Clive Barker was involved in a streaming service film adaptation of The Books of Blood in 2020, and is developing a Nightbreed television series directed by Michael Dougherty and written by Josh Stolberg for SyFy.

Clive Barker is a prolific visual artist, often illustrating his own books.

Clive Barker's paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early '90s; on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations and Forms of Heaven ; and on the second printing of the original British publications of his Books of Blood series.

Clive Barker provided the artwork for his young adult novel The Thief of Always and for the Abarat series.

Clive Barker's artwork has been exhibited at Bert Green Fine Art in Los Angeles and Chicago, at the Bess Cutler Gallery in New York and La Luz De Jesus in Los Angeles.

Clive Barker worked on the horror video game Clive Barker's Undying, providing the voice for the character Ambrose.

Clive Barker worked on Clive Barker's Jericho for Codemasters, which was released in late 2007.

Around 150 art works by Clive Barker were used in the set of the Academy of the Unseen Arts for the Netflix TV series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Clive Barker published his Razorline imprint via Marvel Comics in 1993.

Clive Barker served as a consultant and wrote issues of the Hellraiser anthology comic book.

In December 2007, Chris Ryall and Clive Barker announced an upcoming collaboration of an original comic book series, Torakator, to be published by IDW.