William Crain is an American film and television director. He was one of the first black filmmakers from a major film school to achieve commercial success.

Crain was born in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

. A graduate of UCLA's film school, Crain, unlike many of the so called, "L.A. Rebellion

L.A. Rebellion

L.A. Rebellion film movement, sometimes referred to as the "Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers", refers to the time from roughly the late-1960s to the late-1980s when a new generation of young African and African American filmmakers emerged from UCLA Film School to produce works that provided...

" filmmakers who made films of a deeply personal or political nature, his work consisted almost entirely of mainstream and genre driven works.

In 1972, he directed Blacula

Blacula

Blacula is a 1972 American horror film produced for American International Pictures. It was directed by William Crain and stars William Marshall in the title role about an 18th century African prince named Mamuwalde, who is both turned into a vampire and locked inside a coffin by Count Dracula...

. While largely ignored by critics, the film has become somewhat of a cult favorite.

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