Happy Birthday, Freddy Krueger

Robert Englund is beside himself.
Get it? Oh, never mind.Robert Englund turns 61 today. You might know him as Freddy Krueger from the "Nightmare on Elm Street" film series. But, if not for a quirk of fate, you could've been calling him Luke Skywalker.

That's right. According to his biography at IMDB.com, Englund tried out for the part of Luke but didn't get the part. He told his friend he should try out for the part ... and his friend happened to be Mark Hamill. The rest is history from a galaxy far, far away.

Englund became a screen icon nonetheless, when a high-profile role in the sci-fi action series "V" was followed by 1984's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and a slew of sequels. He got his start in acting at the ripe old age of 12 1/2. One of his earliest roles onstage was as Pinocchio, and in this great 2005 interview on PhillyBurbs.com, he described stealing the show with his goofy, improvised antics. "And finally the director had to tell me to stop, because I was stopping the whole show," Englund recalled.

What's next for the classically-trained thespian? Among several upcoming projects, he's appearing with another living legend of horror — Christopher Lee — in "The Vij." Englund is also directing this gothic fantasy, based on an 1835 short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)