One of the things that makes Freddy unique in the world of horror villains is that he was always played by Englund, in each and every film of the original Nightmare on Elm Street franchise – and even in Freddy’s long awaited cinematic battle with Jason Voorhees. Well, for the most part, at least…
Though Robert Englund of course played Freddy in 99.9% of the character’s appearances in the franchise, there are actually a handful of other actors, stand-ins and stuntmen that helped bring Freddy to life, for various different moments in the films.
Today, as we celebrate the original film’s 30th anniversary this week, we give those folks some credit where credit is due.
Here are eight other people who portrayed Freddy Krueger, throughout the years – Jackie Earle Haley not included!
8 Other Freddy Kruegers
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1
Believe it or not, the very first time Freddy appeared on screen, he was not played by Englund. The film marked Charles Belardinelli's first foray into the world of special effects, and it was he who provided the hands for Freddy, seen building the iconic glove at the start of the movie. Since he had previously been a carpenter, and had worked on the creation of the glove, Belardinelli was the one person on set who was most skilled at building the weapon, so his hands were used as doubles for Englund's. Interesting to note that Belardinelli ended up getting married to Christina Rideout, a Heather Langenkamp stunt double that he met on Elm Street!
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2
Perhaps the most iconic scene in the original Nightmare on Elm Street is of course the one where Freddy's glove reaches up between Nancy's legs, after she dozes off in the bathtub. The scene was pulled off with a bottomless tub, which was positioned over a water tank, and it was mechanical effects designer Jim Doyle who had the enviable honor of donning the razor glove for the scene, and taking a bath with Heather Langenkamp. "I had the distinct pleasure of having Heather sitting on my knees with her feet resting on my shoulders for an entire day," Doyle fondly recalled, in the documentary Never Sleep Again.
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3
Another incredibly memorable scene in the original film is when Freddy emerged from Nancy's bedroom wall, while she was sound asleep in her bed. This moment was again brought to life by Jim Doyle, wearing a Freddy Krueger stunt mask. The effect was achieved by Doyle pressing into a sheet of spandex, which was stretched over a cut-out hole in the wall. For the remake, the old school ingenuity was replaced with CGI, and a comparison between the two scenes is proof positive that special effects just plain aren't what they used to be. Other films that Jim Doyle worked on include The Stuff, Prom Night 2 & Friday The 13th: The New Blood.
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4
Towards the end of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Nancy sets Freddy on fire in the basement, and it's quite clear that a stuntman took the place of Robert Englund for the sequence. That stuntman was Anthony Cecere, most known for playing Ghostface in Scream and Scream 2. The lengthy stunt was pulled off in one take by the veteran stuntman, who worked on many of Wes Craven's films. On Cecere's impressive resume as a stuntman are a whole host of other horror movies, including The Thing, Child's Play, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. Cecere even served as second unit director on Swamp Thing and The Hills Have Eyes Part 2!
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5
In A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child, comic book geek Mark Gray meets his demise not at the hands of Freddy Krueger, but rather at those of the super villain who's faster than a bastard maniac: Super Freddy. After Mark discovers his dream power and turns into the badass comic book hero The Phantom Prowler, gunning down Freddy, Freddy takes the form of the jacked up, black and white Super Freddy, and Robert Englund was swapped out for the much larger actor Michael Bailey Smith for the brief scene. Dream Child was Smith's film debut, and he also briefly doubled as Dan Jordan during a sex scene at the start. The actor/stuntman is most known to horror fans for playing Pluto in the 2006 remake of The Hills Have Eyes.
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6
Noble Craig has the most awesome IMDb resume of all time, a career in film spawned by a real life tragedy. While in Vietnam, Craig stepped on a buried artillery shell, which blew off both of his legs, and one of his arms. His acting career began in 1973, when he played the half-man/half-snake creature in Sssssss. He also played 'Vomit Creature' in Poltergeist 2, 'Sewer Monster' in Big Trouble In Little China, 'Puddle Soldier' in The Blob (1988) and 'Crypt Creature' in Bride of Re-Animator. Craig's only other credit? 'Merging Freddy' in Dream Child, seen when Freddy bursts out of Alice's body, towards the end of the film. In order to pull off the bizarre sequence, Craig's legless torso was strapped to Lisa Wilcox, while the rest of his body was held up by wires.
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7
One of the more interesting aspects of Freddy's Dead was the decision to delve more into Freddy's backstory than any of the previous films had bothered to. In the sixth (and not quite final) installment, we see Freddy as a young boy and also as a teenager. Chason Schirmer portrayed Freddy as an animal-killing child, which to this day is his only acting credit - though he did appear in the 1990 music video for Alabama's 'Pass It On Down.' According to his IMDb page, Schirmer is now married, and works in the beverage manufacturing industry.
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8
As for the teenage version of Freddy, who kills his alcoholic step-father (Alice Cooper), that role was played by Tobe Sexton. In Never Sleep Again, Sexton revealed that he took the gig very seriously, and in fact worked with Robert Englund on getting into the mind of Freddy. Nowadays, Sexton spends the majority of his time producing independent films, with credits including The Metrosexual and Money Fight. Fun to note that he did uncredited stunt work for Robin Hood: Men in Tights and even served as a carpenter on the 1995 TV movie Here Come the Munsters.
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BONUS
Though not a part of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, it simply wouldn't feel right to end this post without giving a shout-out to Kane Hodder, who played Freddy in the memorable ending scene of Jason Goes to Hell - his gloved hand seen pulling Jason's mask straight down into Hell. The awesome end-cap to the lackluster film was of course finally given a proper payoff ten years later, in Freddy vs. Jason.
