Moustapha Akkad & Emrah Semih Kosar

Moustapha Akkad
Born July 1, 1930 · Aleppo, Syria
Died November 11, 2005 · Amman, Jordan (injuries sustained in terrorist bombing following a severe heart attack)
Syrian-American Moustapha Akkad produced a series of "Halloween" movies but it was Lion of the Desert (1980) and The Message (1976), on the history of Islam, into which he poured his heart. It was reportedly difficult for him to make it in Hollywood but no one could deny his talent as a director and producer. He was killed along with his daughter, Rima Al Akkad Monla, in a bombing in 2005 in Amman, Jordan. Moustapha Akkad was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1930. He developed a passion for movies at an early age which is why, at age 19, he wanted to go to the States and follow his dream. When he left Syria, his father gave him the money for the ticket and a copy of the Qura'an, telling him it was all he could manage. In the USA, he studied theatre arts at UCLA and got his masters from USC. He started his professional work in TV where he did a biography on the different ethnic groups in the States and how their backgrounds affect their lives in America. NBC offered him a better salary if he chose not to put his name on the project, and this is where he learned a great lesson. In 1976, he made his first feature film, The Message (1976), where he directed and produced; the film was about the birth of Islam starring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas. The film did not score at the American box office because the face of the prophet Muhammad (the main character in the movie) could not be shown due to religious reasons, but it did well world-wide. In 1978, John Carpenter came to him with the screenplay for Halloween (1978) and Akkad produced it while Carpenter directed it. The movie was a big success. In 1981, he went back to directing when he directed Anthony Quinn again in Lion of the Desert (1980), a movie funded by Muammar Gaddafi; the movie did not score at the box office. It was about Libyan freedom fighter Omar Al-Mokhtar and Libyans' fight for freedom against the colonizing Italians, and was his last directorial project. After that, he went back to producing sequels in the Halloween franchise. In 1995, he decided to make a film about the life of Saladin, the great Muslim leader who fought the crusaders, but was unable to get the appropriate funding. On 9 November 2005, he and his daughter were killed in a terrorist attack in Amman, Jordan. As a director, his work was greatly influenced by David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia (1962)) but he had his own amazing touches.