Edward Davis Wood, Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American motion picture screenwriter, director, producer, actor, author and editor (often performing many of these functions simultaneously). In the 1950s, Wood made a run of independently produced, extremely low-budget horror, science fiction and cowboy films, now celebrated for their technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, idiosyncratic dialogue, eccentric casts, and outlandish plot elements, although his flair for showmanship gave his productions at least a modicum of commercial success.

Wood's popularity waned soon after his biggest "name" star, Béla Lugosi, died. He was able to salvage a saleable feature from Lugosi's last moments on film, but his career declined thereafter. Towards the end of his life, Wood made pornography and wrote pulp crime, horror, and sex novels. His posthumous fame began two years after his death, when he was awarded a Golden Turkey Award as Worst Director of All Time. The lack of conventional filmmaking ability in his work has earned Wood and his films a considerable cult following.

Following the publication of Rudolph Grey's biography Nightmare of Ecstasy, Wood's life and work have undergone a public rehabilitation, with new light shed on his evident zeal and honest love of movies and movie production, and Tim Burton's biopic, Ed Wood, earned two Academy Awards.

Hacks are nothing new in Hollywood. Had Edward D. Wood been born a decade or so earlier it's easy to imagine him working out of some poverty row outfit in Gower Gulch, competing with the likes of Victor Adamson and Dwain Esper as the all-time hack. He would've fit in nicely at Educational Pictures in the early 30's or PRC in the following decade. But Wood, like everyone, is imprisoned in their own time, which is what makes him infinitely more famous now than he ever was when alive. Edward D. Wood Jr. was ignored throughout a spectacularly unsuccessful career, died a penniless alcoholic, only to be "rediscovered" when promoters in the early 1980s tagged him the worst director of all time (mostly thanks to the Medveds' hilarious "Golden Turkey Awards" book)- and was given the singular honor of a full-length biopic by Tim Burton (I). After fighting in World War II (he claimed to have been wearing a bra and panties under his uniform during a military landing), Wood attempted to break into the film industry, initially without success, but finally landing the chance to direct a film based on the Christine Jorgensen sex-change. The result, Glen or Glenda (1953) gave a fascinating insight into Wood's own personality and shed light on his transvestism (an almost unthinkable subject for an early 1950s feature). Although devoutly heterosexual, Wood was an enthusiastic cross-dresser, with a particular fondness for angora. His adherence to his fetishes did nothing for his career but his perpetually infectious upbeat personality endeared him to a close circle of friends, many of whom themselves were Hollywood outcasts. On the debit side, though, the film revealed the almost total lack of talent that would mar all his subsequent films, his tendency to resort to stock footage of lightning during dramatic moments, laughable set design, and a near-incomprehensible performance by Bela Lugosi, as a mad doctor, whose presence is never adequately explained. The film deservingly flopped miserably but Wood, always upbeat, pressed ahead. Friends described him as far more interested in cobbling a project together than learning the craft of filmmaking. All of his films exhibit illogical continuity, bizarre narratives and give the distinct impression that his goal was simply to expose the least amount of film possible due to constant budget constraints. It's not so much that he made movies badly, the amazing part is that he managed to get them made at all. His subsequent film with Lugosi, Bride of the Monster (1955) was no better, and Wood only shot a few seconds of footage of Lugosi for his next film before the latter died. Unbelievably, it somehow managed to earn a small profit during it's original release, undoubtedly more of a testament to how cheaply it was produced than as entertainment. What few reviews the film received were awful. Undaunted, Wood based Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) around this limited material and microscopic budget, casting it with his regular band of mostly inept actors. Given the dialog they had to cope with, though, it's unlikely that better actors would have been an improvement - in fact, it's "Plan 9"'s semi-official status as the Worst Film Ever Made that gives it its substantial cult following today. Plan 9, financed by a local Baptist congregation led by his landlord, became his legacy. Ironically, the rights to the film were retained by the church and it is unlikely that Wood ever realized any income from it; his epic bombed upon release and remained largely forgotten for years to come. After this career peak, Wood went into decline (using relative terms), directing undistinguished soft and later hardcore pornography, and writing a number of transvestite-themed pornographic paperbacks before his premature death at only 54. Wood and his wife were evicted from their apartment shortly before his death.