Biography

Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making movies with an 8mm camera. He was a devoted fan of The Three Stooges, so much of Raimi's film work in his teens, with good friends Bruce Campbell and Robert G. Tapert, was slapstick comedy based around what they had observed from "Stooges" movies.

Among the three of them, they wrote, directed, produced and edited a short horror movie titled Within the Woods (1978), which was then shown to prospective investors to raise the money necessary to film The Evil Dead (1981). It met with lukewarm interest in the U.S. with local distributors, so Raimi took the film to Europe, where it was much more warmly received. After it started gaining positive reviews and, more importantly, ticket sales upon its release in Europe, U.S. distributors showed renewed interest, and "Evil Dead" was eventually released stateside to strong box office returns. His next directorial effort was Crimewave (1985), a quirky, cartoon-like effort that failed to catch fire with audiences. However, he bounced back with Evil Dead II (1987), a racier and more humorous remake/sequel to the original "Dead" that did even better at the box office. Raimi was then given his biggest budget to date to shoot Darkman (1990), a comic book-style fantasy about a scarred avenger. The film did moderate business, but Raimi's strong visual style was evident throughout the film via inventive and startling camera work that caught the attention of numerous critics.

The third chapter in the Evil Dead story beckoned, and Raimi once again directed buddy Campbell as the gritty hero "Ash", in the Gothic horror Army of Darkness (1992). Raimi surprised fans when he took a turn away from the fantasy genre and directed Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone in the sexy western, The Quick and the Dead (1995); four years later, he took the directorial reins on A Simple Plan (1998), a crime thriller about stolen money, starring Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda. In early 1999, he directed the baseball film, For Love of the Game (1999), and, in 2000, returned to the fantasy genre with a top-flight cast in The Gift (2000). In 2002, Raimi was given a real opportunity to demonstrate his dynamic visual style with the big-budget film adaptation of the Stan Lee comic book superhero, Spider-Man (2002), and fans were not disappointed. The movie was strong in both script and effects, and was a runaway success at the box office. Of course, Raimi returned for the sequel, Spider-Man 2 (2004), which surpassed the original in box-office takings.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44@hotmail.com

[The Three Stooges] He uses Stooge-like sequences in many of his movies (especially in the Evil Dead films). Raimi is a huge fan of The Three Stooges. He made many super-8 films that resembled classic Stooge shorts.

Often has a voice-over from a principal character at the end of his films (Army of Darkness (1992), all the Spider-Man films).

Frequently casts Bruce Campbell, James Franco, J.K. Simmons, and his brother Ted Raimi.

Likes the "whip pan", possibly inspired by Martin Scorsese

Usually wears a jacket and tie on the set of his films, a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock.

Always has his car (a yellow 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 dubbed "the classic") somewhere visible to the audience in all of his films (including a modified covered wagon, according to Bruce Campbell, in The Quick and the Dead (1995)). It is even visible in the Spider-Man (2002) trailer (the car that Spider-Man jumps on).

Often collaborates with the Coen Brothers

Bloody but comical set pieces

Known for humorously "abusing" actors, i.e, hitting them with tree branches to simulate getting hit with debris, throwing popcorn at them.

References to classic comedy films, horror films and the works of Alfred Hitchcock

His characters are often ordinary individuals caught up in extraordinary circumstances

Attended Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, as an English major.

Middle brother of Ted Raimi and Ivan Raimi.

His wife, Gillian Greene, is the daughter of Lorne Greene and Nancy Deale.

Friends with director John Landis. Had cameos in Landis' Spies Like Us (1985) and Innocent Blood (1992), while Landis did cameos in Raimi's Darkman (1990) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). Both also appeared in Stephen King's ABC mini-series The Stand (1994).

In 2004, both he and the Coen brothers cast J.K. Simmons and Bruce Campbell in one of their movies; Spider-Man 2 (2004) and The Ladykillers (2004).

His family name was changed from the German name Reingewertz.

He wanted to adapt and direct The Shadow (1994), but was denied the rights to do it. Instead, he created his own superhero with his film Darkman (1990).

Graduate of Birmingham Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan in 1977.

Children: Lorne Raimi, Henry Raimi, Emma Raimi, Dashiell William Schooley Raimi.

At college he ran a film society, but instead of renting films to exhibit he and his friends created their own feature-length movies on Super 8 and showed them to the campus audiences instead.

Over his years as a director, Raimi's 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 (originally bought by Raimi's father for the family when Sam was 14) has "played" Ash's car in the Evil Dead movies, Uncle Ben and Aunt May's car in the Spider-Man movies, Annie's car in The Gift (2000), and Mrs. Ganoush's car in Drag Me to Hell (2009), and has made cameos in nearly all of his other movies.

Directed one Oscar-nominated performance: Billy Bob Thornton in A Simple Plan (1998).

I love the Spider-Man character. And that's what's at the heart of it. That's why I really love it. But there's another fun thing that I never had before where you make your movie and a lot of people see it and they seem to like it. So it's like oh my god, I've always been the nerd, lame ass guy on the side, but I made something that a lot of people like. I know that won't last for long, and I'm obviously riding the Spider-Man thing. He's a popular character for 40 years. So anyone who makes a Spider-Man movie gets to make a popular movie. But it's fun to be popular, even if it's a brief, lame thing, and even though I know it's not important. I can't help it. It's really fun and I know how quickly things turn in Hollywood.

And it was great making movies in college because if you made the right movie you'd get this cigar box full of $5 and $1 bills, you'd have like 500 bucks after a weekend. And it was like oh my god, we're rich! We've got to make another picture. But if the movie bombed, you spent a lot of money on the movie, on the ads at the State news, renting the theater, lugging these heavy speakers, the projector bulbs, [and] it was a washout, you realize this movie is not making money. I'm broke. I've got to make the movie that they want to see. So it was a great learning experience.

I think if people love the source material, and that's really whey they're making the movie, then that's a natural outcome. That the things we all love, and work with the creators of the movie to save the things that were so effective. I think it's situations where people don't love the material, they just say, oh that was a big hit, it could be a big hit here. It's just generalizing. Things got lost if you don't understand why people like a thing. When you love something, it's easy to say, 'That's my son, cut out his heart? No, he needs the heart.' It's harder when you don't love the thing yourself.

In an American horror film, you usually have a character and a shot of them. Then their point-of-view moving down a hallway, approaching a door and they're coming closer to the door. And a hand reaches for the knob, and you know, the moment or the moment before or the moment after, based on the timing of the editor and the director, there'll be a big moment of an attack or a scare. What Shimizu does is a moment where Sarah Michelle Gellar is opening this closet, to see what's inside, and we Americans think something is going to jump out, there's nothing in the closet but darkness. And then you start to realize, within that darkness, you see a shape. Is it a knee? Oh, yes it's a knee, and there's a face in there. That's always been there. That I can just perceive within the blackness. And it unnerves me in the freakiest way! And in a completely different way than the sledgehammer technique of some of our cruder American directors. [pause] Such as myself!"

The Dark Knight (2008) was brilliant, and the audience seemed to love it, and I think it rightfully raises expectations for the other superhero pictures, which is a great thing for everybody, for the filmmakers, for the audience.