David Cronenberg

Biography

David Paul Cronenberg was born on March 15, 1943, in Toronto, Ontario. He is the son of Esther (née Sumberg), a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a writer and editor. His father wrote short stories for True Detective and had a column in the Toronto Telegram for around thirty years. The Cronenberg household was full of books, and his father introduced him to art films like The Seventh Seal. As a voracious reader from an early age, Cronenberg started off enjoying science fiction magazines like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Galaxy, and Astounding. He also read horror comics published by EC, which he described as "scary and bizarre and violent and nasty." He attended Dewson Street Public School, Kent Senior School, Harbord Collegiate Institute, and North Toronto Collegiate Institute. Cronenberg graduated from the University of Toronto in 1967 with a general Bachelor of Arts degree. His fascination with film sparked his interest in filmmaking after seeing Winter Kept Us Warm (1966). He began frequenting film camera rental houses and learned the art of filmmaking. Cronenberg made two short films, Transfer and From the Drain, with a few hundred dollars.