Hollywood filmmaker and mentor dies at 98

Roger Corman, the Oscar-winning King of Bs who helped create such low-budget classics as Little Shop of Horrors and The attack of the crab monsters and gave an early break to many of Hollywood’s most famous actors and directors, has died. He was 98.

“He was generous, open and kind to all who knew him,” the statement said.

“When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, ‘I was a director, that’s all.’

Since 1955, Corman has helped create hundreds of films as a producer and director, including Black scorpion, A bucket of blood and The bloody mother.

A noted judge of talent, he recruited aspiring directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese.

In 2009, Corman received an honorary Academy Award.

“There are a lot of limitations that come with working on a low budget, but at the same time there are certain opportunities,” Corman said in a 2007 documentary about Val Lutton, the director of 1940. cat people and other underground classics.

“You can gamble a little bit more. You can experiment. You have to find a more creative way to solve a problem or present a concept.”

The roots of Hollywood’s golden age in the 1970s can be found in Corman’s films.

Jack Nicholson made his film debut as the title character in Corman’s 1958 film. The Cry Baby Killerand stayed in the biker, horror, and action movie company, writing and producing some of them.

Other actors whose careers began in Corman’s films include Robert De Niro, Bruce Dern and Ellen Burstyn.

The appearance of Peter Fonda in Wild Angels was a precursor to his own landmark biker film easy rider, starring Nicholson and his Corman co-star Dennis Hopper.

Wagon Berthastarring Barbara Hershey and David Carradine, is an early Scorsese film.

Corman’s directors were given paltry budgets and were often told to complete their films in just five days.

When Howard, who would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Director Beautiful Mindasks for an extra half day to reshoot a scene from 1977 for Grand Theft AutoKorman told him, “Ron, you can come back if you want, but no one else will be there.”

At first, only disc and specialty theaters booked Corman films, but when teenagers started dating, the national chains backed out.

Corman’s pictures were open about their time about sex and drugs, such as his 1967 release The journeya straightforward LSD story written by Nicholson and featuring Fonda and Hopper.

Meanwhile, he found a lucrative side business releasing prestigious foreign films in the United States, including Ingmar Bergman’s Crying and whisperingby Federico Fellini Amarcord and Volker Schlöndorff The tin drum.

The latter two won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Corman began as a courier for Twentieth Century-Fox, eventually graduating to a story analyst.

Despite his miserliness, Corman maintained a good relationship with his directors, boasting that he had never fired a single one because “I wouldn’t want to do that humiliation.”

Some of his former subordinates repaid his kindness years later.

Coppola turned it on The Godfather, Part IIJonathan Demme included it in the The silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia and Howard gave him a part in the Apollo 13.

Most of Corman’s films were quickly forgotten by all but die-hard fans.

A rare exception is the 1960s Little Shop of Horrorswhich featured a bloodthirsty plant that feasted on humans and featured Nicholson in a small but memorable role as a sickly dentist.

It inspired a long-running 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 remarkable thing was The Ravenwhich reunited Nicholson with veteran horror stars Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone.

Directed by Corman in a rare three-week schedule, the horror spoof earned good reviews, a rarity for his films.

Another Poe adaptation, House of Usherwas deemed worthy of preservation by the Library of Congress.

Towards the end of his life, Karloff starred in another Corman-backed film, the 1968 thriller. Aimswhich marked the directorial debut of Peter Bogdanovich.

Corman’s success prompted offers from major studios, and he directed The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and Von Richthofen and Braun on normal budgets.

Both were disappointments, however, and he blamed their failure on front office meddling.

Roger William Corman was born in Detroit and grew up in Beverly Hills, but “not in the rich part,” he once said.

He attended Stanford University, earned a degree in engineering, and arrived in Hollywood after three years in the Navy.

After his time 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.

They had three children: Catherine, Roger and Brian.

He is survived by Julie, Katherine and Mary, his daughter said in the statement.