Roger CormanProducer and author of indie and B movies How Death Race 2000 And Sharktopusdied on May 9th, per diversity. He was 98 years old and is said to have died surrounded by his family.
He was born on April 5, 1926 and got his start in Hollywood in 1950 as a postal worker for 20th Century Fox. Eventually he became a story reader and repeatedly provided notes for The Gunslinger starring Gregory Peck and left Fox to start his own studio after learning he would not be listed. He later raised enough money to produce the 1954 science fiction film monsters from the bottom of the sea, It went so well that he decided to continue producing films.
Throughout his career, Corman became known for making fast-paced films, most of which were in genres such as science fiction, horror and action. These films helped launch the careers of several actors between the 1950s and 70s: Jack Nicholson, William Shatner, Diane Ladd, and so on. He was equally helpful to the people behind the camera, mentoring directors like James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Joe Dante and Martin Scorsese as they came onto the scene. He also handled U.S. distribution of films of the period directed by foreign filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini.
Corman had many businesses throughout his life, from the tumultuous saga of New World Pictures to his comic book publishing business Roger Corman’s Cosmic Comics. But despite all that, he kept it up B-movie genre He remained alive and served as a producer on hundreds of films, continuing well into the late 2010s. Out of Slumber Party Massacre II To Supergator And yes, 1994 is unreleased Fantastic Four Corman was instrumental in bringing these films to market, either as a producer or as a writer. He even had a steady career as a director, at least until he stopped Frankenstein unbound in 1990.
Throughout his life, Corman was recognized for his contributions to film. Last year, the Los Angeles Press Club gave him a Distinguished Storyteller Award, and he received similar awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producer’s Guild.
Corman is survived by his wife Julie and their two daughters. In a press release, the family praised his films as “revolutionary and iconoclastic, capturing the spirit of an era.” Asked how he would like to be remembered, he said: “I was a filmmaker, just that.”
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