Veteran filmmaker Roger Corman, king of B movies, dies at 98

Roger Corman, who is also known as the 'King of the Bs', and gave many of Hollywood’s most famous actors and directors early breaks, died at 98. Popular filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola paid his last respects to Corman on Instagram.

The veteran filmmaker, who helped turn out such low-budget classics as 'Little Shop of Horrors' and 'Attack of the Crab Monsters', died on Thursday, May 9, at his home in Santa Monica, California, according to a statement released on Saturday by his wife and daughters.

Sharing a photo with Corman, Francis Ford Coppola called him a role model. He wrote, "Today I grieve the passing of Roger Corman. He was my first boss, task-master, teacher, mentor and role model. He was born in Detroit, MI, as I was, in April on the 5th, two days and 13 years before me. There is nothing about the practical matter of making movies I didn’t learn by being his assistant."

Have a look at Coppola's post:

Starting in 1955, Corman helped create hundreds of B-movies as a producer and director, among them 'Black Scorpion', 'Bucket of Blood' and 'Bloody Mama'. 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.

Jack Nicholson made his film debut as the title character in a 1958 Corman quickie, 'The Cry Baby Killer' 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.

Roger Corman was born in Detroit and raised in Beverly Hills. 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.

He is survived by his wife, Julie, and children Catherine, Roger, Brian and Mary.