Biography
Moustapha Akkad (also credited as Mustafa al-Aqqad) was a Syrian-American film director and producer. Born on 1 July 1930 in Aleppo, Syria, he studied theatre arts at the University of California, Los Angeles, and earned a master's degree in film from the University of Southern California.
Akkad directed and produced The Message (1976), an epic about the early history of Islam, and Lion of the Desert (1981), about Libyan resistance leader Omar al-Mukhtar. He also produced the original Halloween (1978) and its sequels through 2002, serving as executive producer on the first eight films in the series.
Akkad was killed on 11 November 2005, along with his daughter Rima, in the Amman hotel bombings in Jordan.
