Summary

  • Roger Corman, a legendary filmmaker, has died at age 98, leaving behind a legacy of groundbreaking independent films.
  • His work includes horror classics like Little Shop of Horrors, but almost more significantly, he was responsible for developing the careers of many future Hollywood icons.
  • Corman remains beloved by cinephiles and filmmakers everywhere, and his impact on the art cannot be understated.

It's an inevitable but nonetheless mournful moment for cinema tonight, May 11, as the groundbreaking filmmaker and producer Roger Corman has died at the age of 98. The director was still working right up to the end, and never truly stopped over the past 70 years. Corman directed roughly 50 movies and produced literally hundreds (more than 500, by some estimates), and was a trailblazer for independent film, often working outside the Hollywood system to produce wild, subversive, or nasty movies beloved by many. As a director, he's perhaps best known for his unique horror movies.

Born April 15, 1926, Roger Corman began his film career in the mail room of 20th Century Fox, eventually becoming a script reader. Deep in the belly of the corporate beast, Corman quickly found the studio system contemptible and quit to direct his own independently financed films, beginning with The Monster from the Ocean Floor.

Roger Corman directed the beatnik horror classics, A Bucket of Blood and The Little Shop of Horrors (which he infamously made in one night and two days), before beginning a cycle of horror films loosely based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe. These included the films The Raven, The Tomb of Ligeia, and the true B-movie masterpieces The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, and The Masque of the Red Death. The latter remains one of the best horror films of all time.

Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Related
Major Film Careers that Roger Corman Helped Create
Director, producer, and actor Roger Corman is the head of the unofficial school of filmmaking. Here are the careers he helped take off.

The Pope of Pop Cinema: Roger Corman Memorialized

Roger Corman hanging outside a car

Corman's contribution to cinema extended beyond his directorial efforts, however. By producing the films of first-time, budding directors, or hiring fresh actors, or simply bringing certain people on set to observe how to make a movie, Corman ended up launching the film careers of countless great artists. These included Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, John Sayles, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, James Cameron, Dennis Hopper, Peter Boganovich, Ron Howard, William Shatner, and many more.

The many people who Corman helped bring up in the industry often repaid him by casting him in a variety of small roles in great films. Roger Corman has starred in The Silence of the Lambs, Apollo 13, The Godfather Part II, Philadelphia, The Howling, Scream 3, and, well, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, all directed by people who owe their careers to Corman. Check out a clip from the documentary about the man, titled Corman's World, in which Jack Nicholson is brought to tears thinking about how much he owes and loves Corman:

Roger Corman was also largely responsible for the United States distribution of some of cinema's greatest international releases, with his New World Pictures. Corman brought films from Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Peter Weir, and many more to American audiences. This was especially significant in the 1970s when many of these international filmmakers had fallen out of favor.

Roger Corman's death is truly a loss to cinema, and we will surely see floods of tributes in the coming days. Rest in power, Roger.