Even the most sinister monsters have hearts.
Actor Robert Englund is best known as one of the cruelest 80’s slashers, Freddy Krueger, from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. While on-screen, he literally devoured teenagers’ souls as they slept. Off-screen, however, the man is as gentle and kind as they come. How do I know? Because this time, the dreams he made happen are actually great.
Enter 18-year-old Henry, a young man fighting a rare illness. To help himself through his battle, Henry became a Nightmare superfan. According to Make-A-Wish Illinois, after reaching out to the brave teen, he told them he wanted to meet his horror hero in the flesh. Robert Englund, upon being contacted, wasted no time and flew from his residence in Los Angeles all the way out to Illinois to make it happen.
18-year-old Henry watched A Nightmare on Elm Street while coping with his rare disease. After being referred for a wish, Henry knew he wanted to meet his favorite horror icon @RobertBEnglund, who famously portrayed Freddy Krueger! @advocatekids pic.twitter.com/qQzu1LuQhb
— Make-A-Wish Illinois (@WishIllinois) August 29, 2019
Personally, I feel like celebrities doing stuff like this out of genuine goodwill and not publicity is becoming rarer and rarer. It just fills me with joy to see famous folks take the time for special one-on-one events such as this one. I can only imagine how happy Henry must have been, too. Just by looking at the photo and seeing the beaming smile on his face, Englund must have made his day.
Robert doing stuff like this makes that fan campaign to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame seem much more pertinent, too, doesn’t it? Maybe that’ll pick up steam once again. Fingers crossed.
In any case, while we may never see Englund haunting our dreams in another Nightmare on Elm Street movie, we can at least sleep easy knowing that the real man is a dream warrior.
