Charles Band

Charles Robert Band (b. December 27, 1951 in Los Angeles, California) is a director, writer, and producer of horror films. He is the son of director-producer Albert Band, and brother of the composer Richard Band. With his former wife Meda, he has two children, Alex Band, the vocalist for band The Calling, and Taryn Band. He has two sons with his former wife Debra Dion, Harlan and Zalman. Charles' grandfather was the artist Max Band.

One of the few non-horror films he worked on was the Prehysteria trilogy, which were made by his family-oriented company Moonbeam Entertainment.

His most famous films are those in the Puppet Master franchise, made by his Full Moon Features company. Before he had Full Moon Features, his earlier (and now defunct) company Empire Pictures made films like Ghoulies and Re-Animator.

Starting in the seventies, Band formed Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributors' handling of his films, Band created Empire Pictures in the early eighties. Through Empire, he could produce and distribute his films ensuring proper distribution and return on profits. Empire entered the video market with Wizard Video during this time, which also released films by others in addition to Empire product. At the height of its run, Empire produced 12 theatrical and 12 direct to video films a year. Wizard would also produce two games for the Atari 2600 in 1982: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween both based on the films of the same names and both quite controversial...
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