No other director in Hollywood history has suffered the ignominy of being called the worst director of all time like Ed Wood Jr.

Ed-Wood-JrEd Wood is so popular as a bad director that a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp featured Wood’s notorious rise to fame. Wood was a WWII paratrooper from Poughkeepsie, NY and loved monster movies. He loved movies in general and somehow made his way to Hollywood where he learned the craft and churned out B movie after B movie, featuring some of the most absurd scripts and plots ever.

So quirky was Wood that his subject matter then is now headline material today. Vampires, ghouls, zombies, cross dressing, war, sci-fi, UFOs, you name it, Ed Wood Jr. had a movie about it. He would gather around him and feature in his movies some of the most eccentric personalities from horror TV show hosts like Vampira to wrestling legend Tor Johnson and most notably screen legend Bela Lugosi.

Ed Wood Jr. would craft stories that no other writer in Hollywood could or would touch. What was weird then is acceptable now. If Wood were alive today he’d be a new icon but even though his movies did make money and are subject to ridicule, he has had the last laugh as his classics like Plan 9 From Outer Space are now some of the most watched movies online. Ed Wood Jr. is now more famous than ever thanks to streaming and DVD.