Cult cinema maestro Roger Corman, who helped create hundreds of films over six decades and played a part in launching the careers of acclaimed directors Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and Ron Howard, died on Thursday at age 98, family members said.
Mr Corman, a producer and director hailed as the "king of B-movies," died at his home in Santa Monica, California, his wife and daughters said in a post on his Instagram account last night without giving the cause of death.
"It is with profound sadness, and boundless gratitude for his extraordinary life, that we remember our beloved husband and father, Roger Corman," his wife Julie and daughters Catherine and Mary, said in the post.
"His films were revolutionary and iconoclastic, and captured the spirit of an age," they wrote.
Mr Corman was given an honorary lifetime Academy Award in November 2009 for his "rich engendering of films and filmmakers."
"Roger, for everything you have done for cinema, the academy thanks you, Hollywood thanks you, independent filmmaking thanks you," Academy Award-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino told Mr Corman at his Oscar ceremony.
"But, most importantly, for all the weird, cool, crazy moments you've put on screen, the movie lovers of planet Earth thank you," he added.
Mr Corman's work - he produced more than 300 films and directed about 50 - was filled with such moments described by Mr Tarantino.
A Nationwide report from 1995 covers Mr Corman's plan to establish a moviemaking centre in Connemara, Co Galway.
"I would like to establish a centre in Galway for making lower budget films. I think both big budget films out of Dublin and the lower budget films, at least for the moment, out of Galway can co-exist," he said in the report.
Mr Corman's movies were shot swiftly, cheaply and only a handful lost money.
They covered genres including sci-fi, horror, biker films, rebellious teen fare, Edgar Allan Poe tales and more.
Their titles included - 1958's The Brain Eaters, 1958's Teenage Cave Man, 1959's A Bucket of Blood, 1961's Creature from the Haunted Sea, 1970's Bloody Mama, 1970's Gas-s-s-s, 1981's Galaxy of Terror and 2012's Piranhaconda.
Past age 90, he was still prolific, producing films with titles such as Cobragator and Death Race 2050.
"I believe to be successful over the long run, unless you're a Federico Fellini or an Ingmar Bergman or a true genius in filmmaking, you have to understand that you're working in both an art and a business," Mr Corman told a pop culture website in 2010.
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He gave early career breaks to future stars including Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Sandra Bullock, Talia Shire, William Shatner, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper.
But he was best known for nurturing directors.
As a frugal producer, Mr Corman hired promising young filmmakers who could work on a shoestring budget, launching their careers.
Before Raging Bull, Martin Scorsese directed Mr Corman's 1972 film Boxcar Bertha and before The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola directed 1963's Dementia 13 for Mr Corman.
Jonathan Demme of The Silence of the Lambs fame directed Mr Corman's Fighting Mad released in 1976 and Ron Howard directed 1977’s Grand Theft Auto for the cult filmmaker before A Beautiful Mind.
All four men went on to best director Oscars.
Additionally, Peter Bogdanovich directed 1968’s Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women for Mr Corman before making The Last Picture Show and James Cameron was art director for Mr Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars before he directed Titanic.
Sometimes his proteges thanked Mr Corman by giving him cameo roles, such as the FBI director in The Silence of the Lambs and a congressman in Apollo 13.
At Mr Corman's 2009 Oscar ceremony, Mr Howard fondly recalled getting a shot to make his directorial debut with Grand Theft Auto at a time when he was viewed as a lightweight TV sitcom actor. Mr Howard said he complained to Mr Corman about not getting sufficient resources.
Mr Corman did not cough up more money, Mr Howard said, but told him: "I promise you this: If you continue to do a good job for me on this picture, you'll never have to work for me again."
No one would argue that the movies Mr Corman produced were subtle or nuanced. Many were filled with crazy effects, bizarre plots and ridiculous monsters.
But some had artistic merit.
He directed 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors, filming it in just two days and one night. It featured a young Jack Nicholson, who had impressed Mr Corman in an acting class.
He also made several horror films in the 1960s starring Vincent Price inspired by Edgar Allan Poe stories including 1960’s House of Usher, 1961’s The Pit and the Pendulum and 1964’s The Masque of the Red Death.
Mr Corman stopped directing in 1971 and focused on producing until 1990 when he took a brief sabbatical from retirement and directed Frankenstein Unbound.
In contrast to his trademark low-budget flicks, Mr Corman also dabbled in international arthouse cinema, serving as the US distributor of films by fabled directors Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa and the French New Wave's François Truffaut among others.
Mr Corman was born on 5 April 1926 in Detroit. He graduated from Stanford University in 1947 with an engineering degree, but quit his first job as an engineer after three days and got work at the 20th Century Fox film studio as a messenger.
After a detour studying modern English literature at the University of Oxford, he returned to the United States intent upon making his mark in the film industry.
The name of Mr Corman's1990 autobiography revealed his guiding philosophy: "How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime."
Source: Reuters
