Roger William Corman was born on April 5,1926 and is an American film director, producer, and actor.
122 Facts About Roger Corman
2.
Roger Corman was the co-founder of New World Pictures, the founder of New Concorde and is a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
3.
Roger Corman 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.
4.
Roger Corman helped to launch the careers of actors like Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, and William Shatner.
5.
Roger Corman has occasionally taken minor acting roles in the films of directors who started with him, including The Silence of the Lambs, The Godfather Part II, Apollo 13, The Manchurian Candidate, and Philadelphia.
6.
Roger Corman was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Anne and William Roger Corman, an engineer.
7.
Roger Corman went to Beverly Hills High School and then to Stanford University to study industrial engineering.
8.
Roger Corman enlisted in the V-12 Navy College Training Program with six months of study to complete.
9.
Roger Corman found work at 20th Century Fox initially in the mail room.
10.
When Roger Corman received no credit at all, he left Fox and decided he would work in film by himself.
11.
Bill, Roger Corman studied English literature at Oxford University and lived in Paris for a time.
12.
Roger Corman then returned to Los Angeles and tried to re-establish himself in the film industry.
13.
Roger Corman took various jobs, including television stagehand at KLAC and a messenger at Fox.
14.
Roger Corman worked as associate producer on the film for nothing, just for the experience.
15.
Roger Corman used his script fee and personal contacts to raise $12,000 to produce his first feature, a science-fiction film, Monster from the Ocean Floor.
16.
The film did well enough to encourage Roger Corman to produce another film, the racing-car thriller The Fast and the Furious, directed by its star, John Ireland, and co-starring Dorothy Malone.
17.
Roger Corman announced he would make four more projects for ARC: High Steel, Cobra, Fortress Beneath the Sea, and an untitled film from Campbell.
18.
Rusoff and Roger Corman reunited on Day the World Ended, a postapocalyptic science-fiction film, which was popular.
19.
Roger Corman returned to ARC for two Westerns, The Oklahoma Woman and Gunslinger ; Gunslinger was co-written by Griffith, who became a crucial collaborator with Corman over the next five years.
20.
Roger Corman bought a script from Curtis Harrington, The Girl from Beneath the Sea.
21.
Roger Corman just made up his mind that he was going to be a success and that was it.
22.
Roger Corman optioned a TV play, The Stake, and hoped to get Dana Andrews to star.
23.
Roger Corman shot it back-to-back with a movie made with his own money, She Gods of Shark Reef.
24.
Roger Corman was meant to make Rock'n'Roll Girl for AIP in December 1957.
25.
Roger Corman made two "teen girl noirs", Teenage Doll for the Woolner Brothers and Sorority Girl, starring Susan Cabot for AIP.
26.
Roger Corman was meant to follow this with Teenage Jungle by Tony Miller.
27.
Roger Corman received his first serious critical praise for Machine-Gun Kelly, an AIP biopic of the famous gangster, which gave Charles Bronson his first leading role and co-starred Cabot.
28.
Roger Corman helped produce two films for Allied Artists, both from scripts by Leo Gordon: Hot Car Girl, directed by Bernard Kowalski and produced by his brother Gene from a script by Gordon; and The Cry Baby Killer, which gave Jack Nicholson his first starring role.
29.
Roger Corman had his biggest budget yet for I Mobster, a gangster story, co-produced by Edward L Alperson and Corman's brother Gene for 20th Century Fox.
30.
Roger Corman produced, but did not direct, Stakeout on Dope Street, directed by Irvin Kershner, Night of the Blood Beast, directed by Kowalski for AIP, using leftover costumes from Teenage Caveman, and Crime and Punishment USA, directed by Dennis Sanders with George Hamilton in his first lead role.
31.
In January 1959, Roger Corman announced he would be moving into distribution.
32.
In 1959, Roger Corman founded The Filmgroup with his brother Gene, a company producing or releasing low-budget black-and-white films as double features for drive-ins and action houses.
33.
Roger Corman wanted to accomplish a lot, he had to have a lot of drive to do it, and he pushed through.
34.
Roger Corman announced he would follow it with a similar comedy, The Bloodshot Private Eye.
35.
For Filmgroup, Roger Corman directed The Wasp Woman, starring Cabot from a script by Gordon.
36.
Roger Corman went to Puerto Rico and produced another two films back-to-back: Battle of Blood Island, directed by Joel Rapp, and Last Woman on Earth, directed by Roger Corman from a script by Robert Towne.
37.
Roger Corman was going to make Part Time Mother from a script by Griffith but it appears to have never been made.
38.
AIP wanted Roger Corman to make two horror films for them, in black and white, at under $100,000 each on a 10-day shooting schedule.
39.
Roger Corman was tired of making films on this sort of budget and was worried the market for them was in decline.
40.
Roger Corman proposed making a film in colour for $200,000, shot over 15 days.
41.
Roger Corman proposed an adaptation of "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe and AIP agreed.
42.
In March 1960, Roger Corman announced that Filmgroup would be part of an international production group, Compass Productions.
43.
Roger Corman was going to direct a thriller from a script by Robert Towne, I Flew a Spy Plane Over Russia.
44.
Roger Corman hired Charles Beaumont to write Masque of the Red Death and announced two films, Captain Nemo and the Floating City and House of Secrets.
45.
Roger Corman was unhappy with his profit participation on the first two Poe films, so he made a third adaptation for different producers, The Premature Burial, written by Charles Beaumont and starring Ray Milland.
46.
For producer Edward Small, Roger Corman made a historical horror piece about Richard III, Tower of London, starring Vincent Price.
47.
Roger Corman released The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, dubbed from a Soviet film.
48.
One of the installments, "The Black Cat", was a comedy, inspiring Roger Corman to do a whole Poe story comedically next: The Raven.
49.
Later, Roger Corman used the sets for that film for The Terror, made for Filmgroup but released by AIP, and starring Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson.
50.
Roger Corman did not direct all of this film; additional scenes were shot by Monte Hellman, Coppola, and Jack Hill, among others.
51.
Back in the US, Roger Corman made X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes, a contemporary science-fiction film for AIP starring Ray Milland.
52.
Roger Corman directed a war film in Yugoslavia with his brother, The Secret Invasion, with Stewart Granger and Mickey Rooney, from a script by Campbell.
53.
Roger Corman made two Poes in England starring Price, the much-delayed The Masque of the Red Death, with Campbell rewriting Beaumont's scripts, and The Tomb of Ligeia, from a script by Robert Towne.
54.
Roger Corman made no further Poes; AIP started up a fresh Poe cycle in the late 1960s, but Roger Corman was not part of it.
55.
Roger Corman got Towne to write a script called The Red Baron.
56.
Roger Corman bought the rights to another Soviet science-fiction film, Planeta Bur, and had some additional footage added to it by Curtis Harrington.
57.
Roger Corman bought the rights to a Yugoslavian film, Operation Titan, and financed additional shooting by Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman.
58.
Roger Corman had an investment in the beach party films Beach Ball and It's a Bikini World.
59.
Roger Corman signed with Columbia to make a Western, The Long Ride Home, based on a script by Robert Towne.
60.
Roger Corman was announced for a number of other projects at Columbia: the biopic of Robert E Lee, an adaptation of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, an adaptation of Kafka's The Penal Colony, and a script by novelist Richard Yates about the Battle of Iwo Jima.
61.
Roger Corman intended to make The Deserters for UA, from a script by Wright, but that was not made either.
62.
Roger Corman wanted to make a film about the Red Baron, but Columbia turned it down because of The Blue Max.
63.
Roger Corman proposed a movie about the St Valentine's Day Massacre and an adaptation of the novel Only Lovers Left Alive.
64.
Roger Corman did begin directing Long Ride Home with Glenn Ford at Columbia.
65.
However, Roger Corman left production a few weeks into the shoot in June 1966 and was replaced by Phil Karlson.
66.
Roger Corman received an offer to direct a studio film, The St Valentine's Day Massacre, for 20th Century Fox, starring Jason Robards and George Segal.
67.
Roger Corman did not enjoy the restrictions of working for a major studio.
68.
Roger Corman was given a $2.5 million budget and made it for $400,000 less.
69.
Roger Corman had money in Navy vs the Night Monsters.
70.
Roger Corman financed two Westerns shot back to back in Utah, directed by Monte Hellman and written and co-produced by Jack Nicholson, The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind, which became cult successes.
71.
Roger Corman financed two films directed by Dan Haller, Devil's Angels, a follow-up to Wild Angels written by Griffith, and a car racing film shot in Europe, The Wild Racers.
72.
Roger Corman announced a comedy about the population explosion, There Just Isn't Any Room, but it appears to have never been made.
73.
Roger Corman directed The Trip for AIP, written by Jack Nicholson and starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Bruce Dern.
74.
Roger Corman made a film for American TV, Target: Harry, shot in Europe with his brother producing.
75.
Roger Corman did some uncredited directing on AIP's De Sade when director Cy Endfield fell ill.
76.
Roger Corman financed Bogdanovich's first feature, Targets, which incorporated footage from The Terror.
77.
Roger Corman produced The Dunwich Horror for AIP, directed by Haller and co-written by Curtis Hanson, and financed Haller's Paddy.
78.
Roger Corman directed a black comedy, Gas-s-s-s, written by George Armitage; it was cut without his permission by AIP and was a financial failure.
79.
Roger Corman was going to make a film of Couples, a novel by John Updike for United Artists, and In from a script by Richard Schupe, but decided to take a break from directing.
80.
Roger Corman made a profit of $3.2 million in its first financial year, and Corman says all eleven out of his first eleven films were successful.
81.
Roger Corman financed the directorial debuts of Curtis Hanson, Sweet Kill, produced by Roger Corman protege Tamara Asseyev.
82.
Roger Corman produced one more film at AIP, Boxcar Bertha, the second feature directed by Martin Scorsese, starring David Carradine.
83.
Roger Corman made I Escaped from Devil's Island with his brother and produced Cockfighter with Monte Hellman, which was a rare financial failure for New World.
84.
Roger Corman said they were "the best of the cheap acts".
85.
Roger Corman bought it for $75,000 and it earned over $2 million at the US box office.
86.
Roger Corman had a four-picture deal with 20th Century Fox, making Capone, Fighting Mad, Moving Violation and Thunder and Lightning.
87.
Roger Corman gave them the chance to direct together, with Hollywood Boulevard, which used outtakes from other New World films.
88.
Sayles later wrote The Lady in Red for Roger Corman, which was directed by Lewis Teague.
89.
Roger Corman financed I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.
90.
Roger Corman made a TV film for CBS, The Georgia Peaches.
91.
Battle Beyond the Stars was so successful Roger Corman had its footage and music score reused in other films such as Galaxy of Terror and Forbidden World.
92.
Roger Corman picked up a film called The Personals which enjoyed success.
93.
Roger Corman sold New World Pictures in January 1983 to a consortium of three lawyers for $16.9 million.
94.
Roger Corman announced an intention to make fewer commercial films, movies more like I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and Cries and Whispers.
95.
Roger Corman sought $400 million in damages and the return of the company.
96.
Roger Corman said they refused to distribute School Spirit and Wheels of Fire.
97.
Roger Corman claimed that New World cheated him distributing Space Raiders, Screwballs and Slumber Party Massacre.
98.
In March 1985 Roger Corman announced he would establish a new distribution "cooperative", Concorde Pictures, where producers could get relatively cheap distribution from Concorde in exchange for contributing to the company's overhead.
99.
Roger Corman remade Not of this Earth and released Big Bad Mama II, and Transylvania Twist ; all three were directed by Jim Wynorski.
100.
Roger Corman produced another version of Masque of the Red Death, directed by Larry Brand.
101.
Roger Corman produced Sweet Revenge, Slumber Party Massacre II, directed by Deborah Brock, Andy Colby's Incredible Adventure, directed by Brock, and The Terror Within, directed by Thierry Notz.
102.
Roger Corman financed the early directorial efforts of Carl Franklin, Vargas Llosa and Katt Shea.
103.
Roger Corman returned to directing once more with Frankenstein Unbound.
104.
Roger Corman financed Fire on the Amazon which had Sandra Bullock and Craig Sheffer in early roles.
105.
Roger Corman created his own comic book franchise, Black Scorpion, which led to a sequel and later a TV series.
106.
Roger Corman received some support from the Irish government, a decision which became controversial when the content of some Corman productions such as Criminal Affairs was criticized in the press.
107.
Roger Corman produced the film Moving Target which was filmed in County Galway.
108.
Roger Corman continued to produce creature films, such as Raptor.
109.
Supergator was turned down by the Syfy channel, but Roger Corman made it anyway.
110.
Roger Corman sold the remake rights of Death Race 2000 to Universal, who made Death Race with Jason Statham, with Corman credited as executive producer.
111.
In 2009, Roger Corman produced and directed alongside director Joe Dante the web series "Splatter" for Netflix.
112.
Roger Corman started contributing trailer commentaries to Dante's web series Trailers from Hell.
113.
In 2011, Roger Corman cited James Cameron's Avatar and Christopher Nolan's Inception as examples of "great imagination and originality".
114.
Roger Corman produced the 2017 film Death Race 2050, a sequel to the 1975 film Death Race 2000.
115.
In 2016, Roger Corman sued a wealth management company about suspected losses of his personal fortune.
116.
Roger Corman won the Lifetime Achievement Award at Stockholm International Film Festival in 1990.
117.
In 2006, Roger Corman received the David O Selznick Award from the Producers Guild of America.
118.
In 2010, Roger Corman was inducted into the Beverly Hills High School Hall of Fame.
119.
In 2012, Roger Corman was honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.
120.
Many have said that Roger Corman's influence taught them some of the ins and outs of filmmaking.
121.
Actors who obtained their career breaks working for Roger Corman include Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Charles Bronson, Todd Field Michael McDonald, Dennis Hopper, Tommy Lee Jones, Talia Shire, Sandra Bullock, Robert De Niro, and David Carradine, who received one of his first starring film roles in the Roger Corman-produced Boxcar Bertha and went on to star in Death Race 2000.
122.
Many of Roger Corman's proteges have paid their mentor homage by awarding him cameos in films, such as in The Godfather Part II, The Silence of the Lambs, Apollo 13, and as recently as Demme's 2008 film Rachel Getting Married.