Victor Salva

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Victor Salva (born March 29, 1958) is an American film director, mostly of horror movies. His body of work includes the films Powder and Jeepers Creepers. His work is often overshadowed by his conviction for sexually molesting a 12-year-old boy named Nathan Forrest Winters. Salva pleaded guilty in 1988 to five felony counts of child sex abuse; he served 15 months of a three-year prison sentence.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Criminal conviction 3 Later career 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Salva was born in Martinez, California. He grew up watching Creature Features on television and is a self-confessed "Jaws baby". In 1986, he made the low budget horror film Something in the Basement which attracted the attention of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who in turn helped Salva finance his first feature-length film, Clownhouse (1989), and many subsequent films.

[edit] Criminal conviction

While directing Clownhouse, Salva molested one of the film's stars, 12-year-old Nathan Forrest Winters. The sexual acts were videotaped by Salva, who pleaded guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct, one count of oral copulation with a person under 14, and three counts of procuring a child for pornography. Salva was sentenced to three years in prison. He served 15 months of the sentence before being paroled.

[edit] Later career

It would be seven years before Salva made another film. He began with the The Nature of the Beast (1994). Then came the Disney financed Powder (1995). It was during this time that Winters once again came forward with what Salva had done to him. The subsequent media coverage, and speculation as to why Disney would hire a convicted sex offender, ensured that Salva would not make another film until 1999's Rites of Passage, which took the Grand Prize at the Santa Monica Film Festival.

Salva, who is openly gay,^[1][2] wrote and directed the horror film Jeepers Creepers (2001) and its sequel Jeepers Creepers II (2003). In 2006, he directed Peaceful Warrior.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Victor Salva at the Internet Movie Database
• Media reports archive related to the director's sexual molestation of a child actor and his films Powder and Jeepers Creepers