David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg is a Canadian director whose films have had considerable influence on modern horror and surrealist filmmaking. Cronenberg's films often explore psychological traumas which manifest physically in emotionally-troubled characters. His first feature film, Shivers, depicts a parasitic virus that turns its victims into sex-crazed zombies.

From early in his career through the present, Cronenberg films are routinely associated with physical mutilation, often caused by a perilous mental state. 1981's Scanners involves telepathically gifted, yet tormented, individuals. An infamous "exploding head" scene earned Cronenberg significant attention in the world of horror, which only expanded with 1983's Videodrome. The Fly, Dead Ringers and Crash continued to explore the human mind and psychology through violent images and actions.

Some of Cronenberg's highest accolades have come in his post-2000 films. In 2005's A History of Violence, based on a graphic novel, a small-town diner-owner's violent past haunts him and his family. In 2007, he directed Eastern Promises, a crime drama about the Russian mafia in London. Both films starred Viggo Mortensen.

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• May 15, 1943: Born

• 1966: Transfer

• 1967: From the Drain

• 1970: Crimes of the Future

• 1975: Shivers

• 1977: Rabid

• 1979: Fast Company and The Brood

• 1981: Scanners

• 1983: Videodrome and The Dead Zone

• 1986: The Fly

• 1988: Dead Ringers

• 1991: Naked Lunch

• 1993: M. Butterfly

• 1996: Crash

• 1999: eXistenZ

• 2000: Camera

• 2002: Spider

• 2005: A History of Violence

• 2007: Eastern Promises