Richard Matheson – American 20th–21st century writer, author of I Am Legend and Hell House, a master of psychological horror and science fiction. Born in 1926, he fought in WWII and grew up in Brooklyn. His novels and TV scripts shaped The Twilight Zone and inspired Stephen King, George Romero, and countless filmmakers. Matheson fused suburban normalcy with the uncanny, making horror disturbingly intimate.
🧛 I Am Legend became the foundation of modern zombie culture. 📺 Wrote 15+ scripts for The Twilight Zone, including classics like “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” 🎬 Penned Duel, Spielberg’s breakthrough film. 📖 Stephen King hailed him as a key mentor. 👻 Hell House is considered one of the scariest haunted-house novels ever. 💌 Started in pulp magazines before becoming a genre icon. 🌍 Loved to twist everyday life into supernatural dread. 😮 Central theme: human loneliness in a hostile world. 😅 Funny note: joked he wrote about monsters because “real people are scarier.”