Roger Corman, pioneering B-movie director and producer, dies aged 98

Roger Corman, who directed and produced countless B-movies and championed future industry greats Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson, died May 9 at his home in Santa Monica, California. Variety reports. He was 98.

“His films were revolutionary and iconoclastic, capturing the spirit of an era. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said: “I was a filmmaker, just that,” the family said in a statement to the medium.

For nearly five decades, he dominated the B-movie market with films ranging from his early work in the 1950s to western films such as: Five Guns West And The Gunslinger to horror and science fiction, including The day the world ended And The undeadto teen films like Carnival skirt And Rock all night long.

His picture from 1958 Machine Gun Kelly marked a turning point in his critical recognition. He followed along I gangster and then 1960s The Little Shop of Horrors.

He often worked with Sam Arkoff of American Intl. Pictures, which financed most of his early work. Together they worked on a number of horror films focusing on Edgar Allan Poe, including some from the 1960s The Fall of the House of Usher and several low-budget hits like The tomb of Legeia And The Mask of the Red Death. These films brought renewed attention to actors such as Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre.

Around this time he began working with then-unknown greats such as Ellen Burstyn, Nicholson and De Niro, as well as screenwriters such as Robert Towne and directors who would later become household names such as Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante and Peter Bogdanovich.

In 2009 he received an honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievements. He produced more than 300 films and directed 50 titles.

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