What A Nightmare On Elm Street's Freddy Krueger Looks Like In Real Life

Few horror icons are as well known as Freddy Kreuger from the "A Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise. One of the few slasher baddies who can stand on the same footing as horror icons like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Chucky, Freddy Kreuger has been terrifying audiences with his dream-jumping, teenager-stalking powers, and endless bad puns for decades.

However, as you may have suspected, the actor behind the well-known killer does not share the frightful burn scars, striped shirt, and bowler hat of his quippy "A Nightmare on Elm Street" character in real life. Still, even before his most notable role in the long-running horror series, Robert Englund had an extensive career in show biz, with over 40 roles before he took on the part of Freddy Kreuger.

Englund popped up in Arnold Schwarzenegger's breakout movie, "Stay Hungry," the 1970s version of "A Star is Born" with Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and both installments of the science fiction alien invasion mini-series, "V," in the early '80s. Still, the actor has had plenty to do since then. Robert Englund has reprised his role as Freddy Kreuger in eight additional "A Nightmare on Elm Street" adjacent sequels and spin-offs and even hosted 44 episodes of his own horror show, "Freddy's Nightmares," in the late '80s.

The '90s would see the actor go on to one-off roles in major series of the decade like "Walker, Texas Ranger," "Sliders," "Babylon 5," and "Married with Children." The horror legend capped off the '90s with horror cameos in "Urban Legend" and "Wishmaster," and even provided vocals for the hit Elton John song, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" From there, he moved on to voicework in two different "Justice League" series in the 2000s and, later on, "The Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Green Lantern: The Animated Series." Never too far from his genre roots, however, Englund also had brief stints on shows like "Bones," "Chuck," "Supernatural," and "Workaholics." 

If you think you may have seen the actor in something more recent, it may be because he played traumatized asylum patient Victor Creel in the fourth season of the hit Netflix series, "Stranger Things." This ought to come as no surprise, as the baddie of that season, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), was heavily inspired by Freddy Kreuger. Still, with another season of "Stranger Things" coming before the show wraps up for good, we may yet see more of Englund as Victor Creel, especially after it was revealed that his son in the show is actually Vecna.