Goodbye To A True Genre Movie Original

Farewell To A Huge Cinema Figure

The great Roger Corman, a figure in cinema who kicked off the careers of people like Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and scores of others, has died at the age of 98…

Here’s a few tributes from Twitter

#RIP Roger Corman (1926-2024) pic.twitter.com/a1SduJhNrO

— Eyes On Cinema (@RealEOC) May 12, 2024

From Oscar winning director Guillermo del Toro

Mr Corman did more for Contemporary American Cinema than any other of his contemporaries. He was a pillar and a straight-shooting, no-nonsense lover of Film. https://t.co/aR5sAzucjp

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) May 12, 2024

That’s right- I have personally heard Coppola, Ron Howard, Jim Cameron, Joe Dante and many others STILL express their genuine affection and gratitude for Roger- who was a smart businessman, yes, but a total film lover too and a bright, bright mind- and loyal, sweet human being. https://t.co/bXpYTgrtNh

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) May 13, 2024

Jack Nicholson gets emotional talking about his mentor and key figure in his life, trailblazing director and producer ROGER CORMAN.#RIPRogerCorman

pic.twitter.com/f9VgN5Fhpg

— Michael Warburton (@TheMonologist) May 12, 2024

From British producer Jeremy Thomas:

In a very, VERY literal way, the film industry as we know it today would not exist without Roger Corman. Most of everyone’s favorite directors owe him their career. RIP to an absolute, unmitigated icon. #RogerCorman #RIPRogerCorman https://t.co/UyY8etg3cU

— Jeremy Thomas – ⦻ (@jthomas411mania) May 12, 2024

Roger Corman and his muse, Vincent Price. #RIPRogerCorman, who gave so many — including Coppola, Demme, Rothman, Scorsese and Schrader their starts, and gave horror movies their cachet. pic.twitter.com/swKfqqKoHN

— Carrie Rickey (@CarrieRickey) May 12, 2024

Robert Rodriquez on Twitter said this too:

.@RogerCorman was a huge inspiration as both a filmmaker and businessman. Creating your own IP at your own studio while inspiring other filmmakers was a lesson so many of my generation learned from him. In 2018, it was an honor to screen and discuss with Roger my favorite of his… pic.twitter.com/W6VvR6sONQ

— Robert Rodriguez (@Rodriguez) May 12, 2024

Any obituary would fail to do justice to Mr Corman’s career. Here’s a list of just a few of the films he made:

Not of This Earth (1957), House of Usher (1959), The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Raven (1963), X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), The St Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967), The Trip (1967)

He was also producer on cult films like Sweet Kill (1973), Boxcar Bertha (1972), Death Race 2000 (1975).

Here’s an abridged version of The Hollywood Reporter’s obituary on him.

Corman perhaps is best known for such horror fare as The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) and his series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations starring Vincent Price, but he became celebrated for drugs-and-biker sagas like The Wild Angels (1966), which was invited to the Venice Film Festival as the Premiere Presentation.

He also achieved notoriety for producing The Trip (1967), which starred Peter Fonda as a man on an LSD-inspired odyssey. Its controversy delighted Corman, who was one of the first producers to recognize the power of negative publicity.

His blend of sex, nudity, violence and social themes was taken seriously in many quarters, especially in Europe and among film school professors, and in 1964 he was the first American producer-director to be honored at the Cinematheque Francaisee with a retrospective of his movies.

Others considered his work so embarrassingly awful that it deserved lasting notoriety. Take Bloody Mama (1970), for instance; sure, it was a gangster saga about Ma Barker and her thug sons, but the cast included Shelley Winters, Robert De Niro and Bruce Dern.

There are two divergent schools of thought on Corman’s career: 1) That he recognized and nurtured talent or 2) that he exploited youthful talent and never used it to go beyond the rudiments of pushing out quickie product.

Nicholson, then 21, made his big-screen debut in Corman’s The Cry Baby Killer (1958). Corman hired a young Scorsese to direct Boxcar Bertha (1972) and Demme to write Caged Heat (1974). He made new college graduate Hurd his production assistant and later his marketing chief and handed Cameron the job of designing props for Battle Beyond the Stars (1980).

Here’s a few other tributes to him from THR:

We here at Tripwire would like to offer our condolences to his family and friends.