Casper Van Dien — 2009 IHSFF Hall of Fame Inductee

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CASPER VAN DIEN

Casper grew up as part of a military family in Ridgewood, New Jersey. When he and his family moved to Florida, he attended Admiral Farragut Academy where he graduated third in command. After attending Floriday State University, he moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. He found early success in recurring roles on Beverly Hills 90210 and the soap opera One Life to Live.

He jumped to leading man status when he starred as James Dean in the television biopic James Dean: Race with Destiny. He then landed his best-known role, as Captain Johnny Rico in Director Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 science-fiction film Starship Troopers. The film was a box-office smash, leading him to major roles in Tim Burton’s critically acclaimed film Sleepy Hollow (1999) and the title role as the “Lord of the Jungle” in the Warner Bros. film Tarzan and the Lost City (1998).

He has also starred in over twenty other feature films, including The Omega Code with his wife Catherine Oxenberg. Since then, Catherine and Casper have worked together on several different projects and have formed a company together to produce socially responsible, quality family entertainment with the intention of uplifting and transforming people. He recently returned to the role of Johnny Rico in Starship Troopers 3: Marauder and is in development on the film Royal Exile: The Betrayal of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, in which he wrote the script and is directing and producing the project.

Casper is devoted to many charitable causes, including Childhelp USA. This organization is devoted to stopping child abuse, and all proceeds from signings during his appearance at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival will be donated to this worthy cause located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Starship Troopers In a sardonic use of propaganda, young adults of the future are pressured by the government, authority figures and each other to volunteer for military service as a prerequisite to achieving full citizenship.

People have ventured off Earth and are beginning to colonize other star systems. When the insectile alien inhabitants of one such system react to colonization with a devastating attack on the Earth, humankind’s response is a fully fledged invasion and a policy of systematic elimination of the species. This policy is implemented by the high school leavers we have followed into their careers in the armed forces.

A love triangle between buddies, and their various paths toward violent glory and bloody tragedy, stitch together the grand-scale spectacle.