Roger Corman Dies: ‘The Little Shop Of Horrors’ Director & Independent Filmmaker Was 98

Armando Tinoco
·2 min read
Roger Corman Dies: ‘The Little Shop Of Horrors’ Director & Independent Filmmaker Was 98

Roger Corman, the independent filmmaker known as the “King of the Bs,” has died at the age of 98.

The Oscar-winning director and producer of films like 1959’s The Wasp Woman and 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors, died at his home in Santa Monica on Thursday, May 9th.

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“He was generous, open-hearted and kind to all those who knew him,” Corman’s daughter Catherine Corman said in a statement to the Associated Press. “When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said, ‘I was a filmmaker, just that.’”

Earlier this year, it was announced that Corman, Joe Dante and Brad Krevoy were teaming up on Little Ship of Halloween Horrors, a reboot of Corman’s cult classic.

Affectionately referred to as “King of the B-movies” and “The Pope of Pop Cinema,” Corman, credited with launching the careers of Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, James Cameron, and Francis Ford Coppola. The latter two made their early movies for Corman. Coppola returned the favor when he had Corman play a Senator in The Godfather Part II in the hearings held trying to bring down Michael Corleone.

Corman’s speed was legendary. He developed Little Shop of Horrors when he was given two days to use the sets that had been left standing from his previous film, A Bucket of Blood. He completed the film in two days and one night.

Having directed more than 70 films and produced more than 300 over his prolific seven-decade career, Corman was an early trailblazer in independent cinema. Also known for cult films like The Masque of the Red Death, Death Race 2000, and Piranha, he was the youngest filmmaker ever to have a retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise and has earned Lifetime Achievement Awards from more than 40 film festivals. Corman was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2009.

Sharing the news of Corman’s passing, filmmaker John Carpenter called him “one of the most influential movie directors in my life.”

“It was my privilege to know him.He was a great friend,” Carpenter wrote on X “He shaped my childhood with science fiction movies and Edgar Allen Poe epics.”

Nicholson teared up years ago when speaking about Corman’s impact on his life and career.

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