LOS ANGELES (AP) â Roger Corman, the âKing of the Bsâ who helped turn out such low-budget classics as âLittle Shop of Horrorsâ and âAttack of the Crab Monstersâ and gave many of Hollywood's most famous actors and directors early breaks, has died. He was 98.
Corman died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, California, according to a statement released Saturday by his wife and daughters.
âHe was generous, open-hearted and kind to all those who knew him,â the statement said. âWhen asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, âI was a filmmaker, just that.ââ
Starting in 1955, Corman helped create hundreds of B-movies as a producer and director, among them âBlack Scorpion,â âBucket of Bloodâ and âBloody Mama.â A remarkable judge of talent, he hired such aspiring filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese. In 2009, Corman received an honorary Academy Award.
âThere are many constraints connected with working on a low budget, but at the same time there are certain opportunities,â Corman said in a 2007 documentary about Val Lewton, the 1940s director of âCat Peopleâ and other underground classics.
âYou can gamble a little bit more. You can experiment. You have to find a more creative way to solve a problem or to present a concept," he said.
The roots of Hollywoodâs golden age in the 1970s can be found in Cormanâs films.
Jack Nicholson made his film debut as the title character in a 1958 Corman quickie, âThe Cry Baby Killer,â and stayed with the company for biker, horror and action films, writing and producing some of them. Other actors whose careers began in Corman movies included Robert De Niro, Bruce Dern and Ellen Burstyn.
Peter Fondaâs appearance in âThe Wild Angelsâ was a precursor to his own landmark biker movie, âEasy Rider,â co-starring Nicholson and fellow Corman alumnus Dennis Hopper. âBoxcar Bertha,â starring Barbara Hershey and David Carradine, was an early film by Scorsese.
Corman's B-movie directors were given minuscule budgets and often told to finish their films in as little as five days. When Howard, who would go on to win a best director Oscar for âA Beautiful Mind,â pleaded for an extra half day to reshoot a scene in 1977 for âGrand Theft Auto,â Corman told him, âRon, you can come back if you want, but nobody else will be there.â
âRoger Corman was my very first boss, my lifetime mentor and my hero. Roger was one of the greatest visionaries in the history of cinema,â Gale Anne Hurd, whose notable producing credits include the âTerminatorâ film franchise, âThe Abyssâ and âThe Walking Deadâ television series, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Initially only drive-ins and specialty theaters would book Corman films, but as teenagers began turning out, national chains gave in. Cormanâs pictures were open for their time about sex and drugs, such as his 1967 release âThe Trip,â an explicit story about LSD written by Nicholson and starring Fonda and Hopper.
Meanwhile, he discovered a lucrative sideline releasing prestige foreign films in the United States, among them Ingmar Bergman's âCries and Whispers,â Federico Fellini's âAmarcordâ and Volker Schlondorff's âThe Tin Drum.â The latter two won Oscars for best foreign language film.
Corman got his start as a messenger boy for Twentieth Century-Fox, eventually graduating to story analyst. After quitting the business briefly to study English literature for a term at Oxford University, he returned to Hollywood and launched his career as a movie producer and director.
Despite his penny-pinching ways, Corman retained good relations with his directors, boasting that he never fired one because âI wouldn't want to inflict that humiliation.â
Some of his former underlings repaid his kindness years later. Coppola cast him in âThe Godfather, Part II,â Jonathan Demme included him in âThe Silence of the Lambsâ and âPhiladelphiaâ and Howard gave him a part in âApollo 13.â
Most of Corman's movies were quickly forgotten by all but die-hard fans. A rare exception was 1960's âLittle Shop of Horrors,â which starred a bloodthirsty plant that feasted on humans and featured Nicholson in a small but memorable role as a pain-loving dental patient. It inspired a long-lasting stage musical and a 1986 musical adaptation starring Steve Martin, Bill Murray and John Candy.
In 1963, Corman initiated a series of films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The most notable was âThe Raven,â which teamed Nicholson with veteran horror stars Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone. Directed by Corman on a rare three-week schedule, the horror spoof won good reviews, a rarity for his films. Another Poe adaptation, âHouse of Usher,â was deemed worthy of preservation by the Library of Congress.
âIt was my privilege to know him. He was a great friend. He shaped my childhood with science fiction movies and Edgar Allen Poe epics,â John Carpenter, director of âHalloween,â âThe Thingâ and other classic horror and action films, said on X. âIâll miss you, Roger.â
Near the end of his life, Karloff starred in another Corman-backed effort, the 1968 thriller âTargets,â which marked Peter Bogdanovich's directorial debut.
Corman's success prompted offers from major studios, and he directed âThe St. Valentine's Day Massacreâ and âVon Richthofen and Brownâ on normal budgets. Both were disappointments, however, and he blamed their failure on front-office interference.
Roger William Corman was born in Detroit and raised in Beverly Hills, but ânot in the affluent section,â he once said. He attended Stanford University, earning a degree in engineering, and arrived in Hollywood after three years in the Navy.
After his stint at Oxford, he worked as a television stagehand and literary agent before finding his life's work.
In 1964 he married Julie Halloran, a UCLA graduate who also became a producer.
He is survived by his wife, Julie, and children Catherine, Roger, Brian and Mary.
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This obituary was written by the late Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas, who .
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The story was first published on May 11, 2024. It was updated on May 13, 2024, to correct the middle name of producer Gale Anne Hurd.
Bob Thomas And Amy Taxin, The Associated Press
