Photo of Roger Corman
Production

Roger Corman

Profession
Production
Born
April 5, 1926 · Detroit, Michigan, USA
Died
May 9, 2024

Biography

Roger William Corman (April 5, 1926 – May 9, 2024) was an American film director, producer and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", “The King of The B’s”, "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of the more than 500 features directed or produced by Corman were low-budget films that later attracted a cult following, such as The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Intruder (1962), X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), and the counterculture films, The Wild Angels (1966) and The Trip (1967). House of Usher (1960) became the first of eight films directed by Corman that were adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and which collectively came to be known as the "Poe Cycle". In 1964, Corman became the youngest filmmaker to have a retrospective at the Cinémathèque française, as well as in the British Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art. He was the co-founder of New World Pictures, the founder of New Concorde and was a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2009, he was awarded an Academy Honorary Award "for his rich engendering of films and filmmakers". Corman was also famous for handling the U.S. distribution of many films by noted foreign directors, including Federico Fellini (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), François Truffaut (France) and Akira Kurosawa (Japan). He mentored and gave a start to many young film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, Joe Dante, John Sayles, and James Cameron, and was highly influential in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He also helped to launch the careers of actors like Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and William Shatner.

Known for

The Silence of the Lambs poster
The Silence of the Lambs
Film · 1991 · ★ 8.3
The Godfather Part II poster
The Godfather Part II
Film · 1974 · ★ 8.6
Apollo 13 poster
Apollo 13
Film · 1995 · ★ 7.5
Philadelphia poster
Philadelphia
Film · 1993 · ★ 7.7
Death Race poster
Death Race
Film · 2008 · ★ 6.3
Scream 3 poster
Scream 3
Film · 2000 · ★ 6.0
The Manchurian Candidate poster
The Manchurian Candidate
Film · 2004 · ★ 6.5
Little Shop of Horrors poster
Little Shop of Horrors
Film · 1986 · ★ 7.0
Looney Tunes: Back in Action poster
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Film · 2003 · ★ 6.4
Death Race 2 poster
Death Race 2
Film · 2010 · ★ 5.9
The Howling poster
The Howling
Film · 1981 · ★ 6.6
Death Race: Inferno poster
Death Race: Inferno
Film · 2013 · ★ 5.9

Filmography