Roger Corman (1926-2024)
Roger Corman, the legendary filmmaker and undisputed "king of B-movies," has passed away. He was also responsible for launching the careers of several actors and directors, such as Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Robert De Niro, and others.
Roger Corman wasn't the type to grow up dreaming of making it big in Hollywood. He was born on 5 April 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. He went to Stanford University and chose to study industrial engineering, only to discover that it was not his passion. After college, he worked at U.S. Electrical Motors for four days, ending his stint by telling his boss, "I've made a terrible mistake." Faced with an unlimited future, he chose the path of filmmaking because his brother, Gene Corman, was a working agent in the film industry.
His first job was as an errand boy in the 20th Century Fox mailroom, but then he used the GI Bill to study English literature at Oxford University for six months, followed by six months in Paris. He did a brief stint as a script reader and penned "Highway Dragnet," selling the low-budget script to Allied Artists for $4,000. However, he was dissatisfied with the movie and, believing he could do a better job as a producer, raised $12,000 to make "Monster from the Ocean Floor," directed by Wyott Ordung. Corman would also start directing with 1955's "Swamp Women." Over the next 15 years, he made over 50 movies, gaining a reputation for working fast, often making two films simultaneously to save money. For example, "The Little Shop of Horrors," which included a brief appearance by Jack Nicholson, took just two days to film on the same set as Corman's previous movie, "Bucket of Blood." It was the basis for a long-running stage musical and a 1986 film musical starring Steve Martin, Bill Murray, and John Candy.
Corman made a series of horror movies based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, all but one of which starred Vincent Price. The first of which was "The House of Usher" in 1960, followed by "The Pit and the Pendulum," "Tales of Terror," "The Raven," "The Masque of Red Death," and "The Tomb of Ligeia." One of his films was "The Intruder." It explored racism in the American Deep South, which starred a young William Shatner and won an award at the Venice Film Festival. However, it was a box office flop and Corman's first money-losing film, causing him to remark that he'd stick to making movies that entertained rather than had a social message. He temporarily embraced the 1960s counterculture, making the biker film "The Wild Angels," starring Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra. The film cost $360,000 and grossed more than $25 million. His next film was "The Trip," in which Jack Nicholson was the writer and star. It predates "Easy Rider" with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in the cast.
In 1970, Corman and his younger brother Gene founded New World Pictures. Together, they produced and distributed over a hundred movies under the banner. In addition to making low-budget films, he began to pick up films by prominent foreign filmmakers, Francois Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and Federico Fellini, and introduced them to American audiences. At the beginning of the 1980s, Corman sold New World Pictures and embarked on new ventures with Concorde Films and New Horizon Films, under whose banners he continued to produce movies, now alongside his wife Julie. When Corman returned to direct for his 1990 film "Frankenstein Unbound," he failed to deliver the goods, disappointing genre fans.
Several of his former protégés, including Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, and Joe Dante, thanked him for his generosity with cameo appearances in films they directed. He is also somewhat responsible for the mega-franchise known as "The Fast and the Furious," having produced a movie of the same name in 1954. Producer Neal Moritz suggested the name to Corman when he was gearing up to launch the franchise. The two of them agreed to let it happen. In 2009, he took home a Lifetime Achievement Oscar, and well into his eighties, he continued to produce films such as "Dinoshark" and "Sharktopus" for the SyFy TV channel in 2010.
His ability to find and nurture new talent is almost unparalleled, as is the sheer volume of movies he has worked on. Many of his features have achieved cult status, and few directors have managed to make popular movies on a shoestring budget.
