Keith J. Crocker was born on April 26, 1965, in Long Island, New York, to parents Donald Crocker and Marion Basile. Donald, a descendant of a three-generation family business called Crocker & Sons, had French, English, and Icelandic ancestry. Marion, on the other hand, was the daughter of James Basile and Anna McGuire, who owned and operated a delicatessen. James hailed from Italy, while Anna stemmed from Longford, Ireland.
Keith has three brothers and two sisters, and his family background has likely influenced his interest in filmmaking. He attended the New York Institute of Technology from 1984 to 1988, where he honed his skills in producing and directing short films. One of his early projects was a series of short films for a phobic clinic in Long Island.
After college, Crocker went on to produce training films for the Shield Institute of Queens, New York, and had a brief stint lighting wedding videos in the mid-1980s. He also worked as a motion picture projectionist in the mid-1990s. In addition to his work in the film industry, Crocker is a prolific writer and has published his own fanzine, "The Exploitation Journal," from 1987 to 2005.
In 1990, Crocker launched Cinefear Video, a source for rare and unavailable films on VHS and DVD. He also gives presentations on the movie genre at various libraries and public centers throughout Long Island and teaches adult education at a local college. As an avid filmmaker, Crocker has made a series of short 16mm films, including "Thanksgiving Day," "DeSade '88," "A Zombies Tale," and "One Grave Too Many."
Crocker's feature film debut was in 1997 with "The Bloody Ape," followed by the Nazisploitation item "Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69." He is also the co-creator of the DVD label WildEye Releasing. In his personal life, Crocker has been married to wife Christina Zuber since 1998.
