Roger Corman, responsible for hundreds of low-budget films and earned the title “B-Movie King,” died at 98 on May 9th in his home surrounded by family. Corman was known for his work directing and producing movies with fast-paced, low-budget genre movies- such as The Intruder (1962), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Masque of Red Death (1964), and The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967) according to IMDB.
Corman’s movies were often given minuscule budgets and as little as five days to finish a project. They were very open for their time about themes of sex and drugs, like The Trip released in 1967. They were initially only drive-ins and specialty movies, but larger companies soon became interested as his films drew in a large teenage crowd.
This film legacy branches further than making iconic movies- but also opened the doors to the movie business by looking beyond age, race, and gender, an achievement he was commended on upon winning his Oscar in November 2009. His company became “work-in-training grounds” for many talents, from actors like Jack Nicholson (“Little Shop of Horrors”) to directors like Francis Ford Coppola (“Dementia 13”) according to Variety.
It is his work in film that he hopes will be his legacy. “His films were revolutionary and iconoclastic and captured the spirit of an age. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, ‘I was a filmmaker, just that,’” according to a statement the family made to Variety.
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