Hollywood is remembering Roger Corman this weekend, after news broke that the legendary “King of the Bs” had died at the age of 98.
Corman died Thursday at his Santa Monica home, according to a statement Saturday from his daughter, Catherine Corman.
“He was generous, open-hearted and kind to all those who knew him,” she said. “When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, `I was a filmmaker, just that.”’
His cause of death was not immediately made public.
“Roger Corman, one of the most influential movie directors in my life, has passed away,” director John Carpenter posted on X. “It was my privilege to know him. He was a great friend. He shaped my childhood with science fiction movies and Edgar Allen Poe epics. I’ll miss you, Roger.”
“RIP Roger Corman. A great movie maker and mentor,” director Ron Howard wrote. “When I was 23 he gave me my 1st shot at directing. He launched many careers & quietly lead our industry in important ways. He remained sharp, interested and active even at 98. Grateful to have known him.”
Born in Detroit, Corman moved to Southern California with his family and attended Beverly Hills High School. He earned an engineering degree from Stanford University and served in the Navy during World War II.
Corman started working in movies in 1955 and would produce more than 300 feature films in his career, along with directing more than 50. His films were light on budget, but heavy on style and entertainment value. He made genre movies, including many horror films, and topical fare that tapped into the pop culture trends of the 1960s such as biker hangs and the drug culture.
He was most famous for giving other big talents their start in the business. Among the legendary names whose careers he helped launch were directors Francis Ford Coppola, Howard, James Cameron, Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdanovich, as well as actors including Robert De Niro, Bruce Dern and Jack Nicholson.
Nicholson made eight movies for Corman, including a small but memorable part in the 1960 horror comedy “Little Shop of Horrors.” Other early cult favorites directed by Corman include “The Masque of the Red Death,” “Attack of the Crab Monsters” and “Bucket of Blood.”
His value as a mentor to younger directors was unparalleled. Paul Almond, legal representative for Corman’s production company, New World Pictures, said that at one point in the 1970s, Hollywood was divided into two camps: 50% from USC and 50% from the “Corman Academy.”
In a 2007 documentary about B-list director Val Lewton, Corman talked about the opportunities of working on a low-budget production. “You can gamble a little bit more. You can experiment,” he said. “You have to find a more creative way to solve a problem or to present a concept.”
Corman hired Cameron as a production designer, matte artist and visual effects director of photography for 1980’s “Battle Beyond The Stars,” and two years later the maker of “Titanic” and “Avatar” was making his directorial debut with “Piranha II: The Spawning.”
Corman had produced 1978’s original “Piranha,” and Almond told City News Service that rather than shoot in the Amazon, scenes were filmed in a residential swimming pool in Pacific Palisades. But they made a “horrendous discovery about the titular fish — they don’t just snap up live flesh.” So, when the piranhas wouldn’t follow the script, imitation ones were employed instead.
The attorney also recalled a time when Corman — whom he fondly called “one of the cheapest human beings in the world” — purchased a property in Venice for the purposes of building a studio. There was a key stipulation from residents — Corman would not be allowed to “gentrify” the location. Almond said it was a deal he sealed without feeling he even needed Corman’s approval.
“I said yes without telling Roger.”
In addition to New World Pictures, Corman founded New Concorde. Although his own films wee notoriously lowbrow, Corman was a lover of the art of serious filmmaking and handled U.S. distribution for some of the era’s greatest foreign directors, including Federico Fellini, Francois Truffaut, Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman.
In 2009, Corman received a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Corman remained active until his death. He was feted in front of a sold-out crowd in Santa Monica last year, where he was the guest of honor at the Beyond Fest film festival, and gave an interview to the Criterion Collection in 2023.
His last credit as a producer was 2017’s “Death Race 2050,” according to IMDB.
He is survived by his wife, Julie, whom he married in 1964, and daughters Catherine and Mary.
