Robert Englund honored with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Nov. 1 (UPI) — Robert Englund, best known for portraying Freddy Krueger in the horror franchise A Nightmare on Elm Street, was honored with a Hollywood star, appropriately, on Halloween.

On Friday morning, Englund, 78, was honored with the 2,826th star on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

At the ceremony, where he was honored in the Motion Pictures category, he wore the bladed glove used by the supernatural serial killer, whose victims are stalked in their dreams and then die in real life.

Aside from playing Krueger in nine of the 10 A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Englund has starred in 78 films and was a guest star in numerous TV shows, including the fourth season of Stranger Things as a villain on Netflix.

“I love the smell of peanut butter cups in the morning, Happy Halloween,” Englund said to the crowd at the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Friday morning.

The release of A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984 led to seven sequels, a crossover battle against Friday the 13th villain Jason Vorhees and a reboot, and has developed a cult-like fan base during the last four decades.

“I wouldn’t be here without the fans,” Englund said. “And as far as I can see, you guys showed up, and I know you are going to start knocking on doors looking for peanut butter cups and candy corn real soon, but thanks for coming.”

Actress Heather Langenkamp and director Eli Roth spoke to the crowd about him. Langenkamp portrayed heroine Nancy Thompson in the original movie and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in 1987.

“They did a lot of months of preparing the special effects makeup that he would wear,” she said at the ceremony.

“They had many weeks of preparing a costume that would bring forth that incredible silhouette of Freddy Krueger that we all know so well. And when I look at this five-pointed star in front of me with Robert’s name on it, I think of the five fingers of that oily, dirty glove that he wore on his right hand,” Langenkamp said.

Langenkamp described the inspiration for the glove.

“That glove dreamed up by Wes Craven,” she said about the filmmaker, who died in 2015.

“He was an unapologetic visionary, telling us how evil evil can be, and on that glove were four knives for fingernails that primal fear we all have of beasts in the wild that can just rip us to pieces when we’re not even aware of it. So, these elements all became part of Robert on these very early days of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Roth noted Freddy Krueger was the first killer to ever speak in a slasher movie.

“Up until then, slashers were silent assassins or a breathers, an avatar for the unstoppable force of death, but Robert made death fun, just so [expletive] fun with such classic one-liners. … Suddenly, we weren’t afraid of the monster. We were rooting for him, and that was a turning point, not just in horror, but in cinema itself,” he said.

Roth was part of the cast of 2001 Maniacs, in which Englund played an eccentric small-town mayor.

Roth said he enjoyed hearing stories about the theater rather than the horror-movie set.

“It is these experiences that encapsulate a man who truly understands how to find the humanity, even in a monster,” he said.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has administered the Walk of Fame for the City of Los Angeles since 1960.

“The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is proud to welcome Robert Englund to the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Ana Martinez, Walk of Fame producer, said before the ceremony. “I think the timing of having Robert’s star on Halloween is most fitting as Robert’s legacy is deeply entwined with the very spirit of Halloween. Fans and industry peers alike will gather to celebrate a performer whose iconic work continues to haunt and inspire audiences around the globe.”

Englund was born in Glendale, Calif., about 7 miles from Hollywood, and began studying acting at 12. He studied drama at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in England, Oakland University in Michigan and UCLA in California.

For five years, he performed in classic plays on the East Coast before he returned to California and landed the first role: Buster and Billie in 1974.

Englund portrays Jiminy Crickett in Pinocchio: Unstrung as Jiminy Crickett, a film released Sunday.

On TV, he appeared on V as Willie, an alien visitor, Freddy’s Nightmares, Nightmare Cafe and True Terror with Robert Englund.

In Stranger Things, he portrays Victor Creel, an elderly man imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital in 1986 who was falsely accused of murder.

Englund also had guest roles on TV shows that include Bones, Criminal Minds, Hawaii Five-0, Knight Rider, Charlie’s Angels.

He also reprised Freddy Krueger in The Goldbergs, voiced the Riddler in Batman and himself in The Simpsons.