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Who Was Roger Corman? All About The Notable Independent Filmmaker As He Passes Away At 98
Known as the Pope of Pop Cinema, filmmaker Roger Corman took his last breath on May 9th, 2024. He was 98 years old.
Trigger Warning: This article has mentions of death.
Celebrated independent filmmaker and producer, Roger Corman, who discovered multiple Hollywood legends and countless B-movies that earned him recognition as one of Hollywood’s best, has passed away at the age of 98.
The late B-movie maestro died on May 9 at Santa Monica, California where he had lived with his family until this time.
Who was Roger Corman? Life and career of the late Hollywood legend
He was born in Detroit but later moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1940. He had also served in WWII while making iconic films.
Within the industry itself, his influence is prolific since Corman made movies that were revolutionary, and symbolic of their time. He characterized himself as simply a movie maker when asked about how he wanted to be remembered, as per Variety.
Corman’s New World Pictures and Concorde/New Horizons excelled in producing fast-paced, independent cinematic masterpieces. His specialty was coming up with low-budget horror action, sci-fi, and even children’s movies among other things. Worth noting is that a long list of Hollywood mavens including actors Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson, directors Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and others have come out from his company after getting trained there.
Roger Corman's transformative movie-making made Hollywood history
Corman moved from traditionalism in filmmaking and went ahead to recognize women who had traditionally been thought not capable of leadership roles in film production thus breaking barriers set by age, race, and gender. He looked upon cinema as a modern form of art which allowed him to strike a balance between artistic integrity on one hand and commercial viability on the other hand.
Through his hard work, Corman brought back viability into the B-movie market which could have sunk due to interference from television starting during the fifties through the sixties.
Even after retiring from directing films around the 1960s, he ensured that this spirit continued within the framework of such enterprises as New World Pictures, which was responsible for bringing new ideas to the screen using different sorts of promoting and distribution methods. Roger Corman was the founder of New World Pictures. He's made about 400 films, best known for the adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, The Silence of The Lambs, Rock n Roll High School, Piranha, Death Race 2000, Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World, etc.
Roger Corman is survived by his wife Julie Corman, daughters Catherine and Mary, as well as an everlasting heritage that will be cherished by generations to come symbolizing cinematic rebellion and creativity.
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