Corman, Roger

Corman, Roger

▪ American writer and director
in full  Roger William Corman 
born April 5, 1926, Detroit, Mich., U.S.

      motion picture director, producer, and distributor known for his highly successful low-budget exploitation films and for launching the careers of several prominent directors and actors.

      In 1940 Corman's family moved from Detroit, Michigan, to Beverly Hills, California, near Hollywood—a move that inspired young Roger's love of motion pictures. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Corman earned an engineering degree from Stanford University. He broke into the film industry in 1948, where he began working as a messenger at Twentieth Century Fox (Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation). He was soon promoted to script reader. After a one-year hiatus during which he studied English literature at the University of Oxford, he coproduced his first film, Highway Dragnet, in 1954.

      His third film, Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954), was made in six days on a budget of $12,000; it was the first of his movies to follow what was to become his standard method (B-film) of operation: inexpensive productions shot in the minimum amount of time. The titles of many of Corman's films of the 1950s—The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955), It Conquered the World (1956), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), Teenage Cave Man (1958), Night of the Blood Beast (1958), The Brain Eaters (1958), The Cry Baby Killer (1958; the film that marked the screen debut of actor Jack Nicholson (Nicholson, Jack)), and A Bucket of Blood (1959)—indicate why he earned the nickname “King of the Drive-in.”

      In 1960 Corman produced and directed a cult classic, The Little Shop of Horrors, which was shot in two days and one night on a leftover set. During the 1960s he directed eight gothic horror films based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe (Poe, Edgar Allan), including The Fall of the House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Raven (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964), featuring such established actors as Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff (Karloff, Boris), Ray Milland, and Peter Lorre (Lorre, Peter).

      In 1970 Corman formed New World Pictures, an independent distribution company that produced the work of such struggling young artists as Francis Ford Coppola (Coppola, Francis Ford), John Sayles, Martin Scorsese (Scorsese, Martin), Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, and Peter Bogdanovich (Bogdanovich, Peter). New World's first film, The Student Nurses (1970), was shot in three weeks for $150,000 and grossed more than $1 million. Other early New World releases included horror, biker, and women-in-prison films. The profits from these low-budget features allowed Corman to act as the American distributor for a number of prestigious foreign films, including Ingmar Bergman (Bergman, Ingmar)'s Cries and Whispers (1972), Federico Fellini (Fellini, Federico)'s Amarcord (1974), and Volker Schlöndorff (Schlöndorff, Volker)'s The Tin Drum (1979).

      By the beginning of the 21st century, Corman had produced or directed more than 350 films. Despite their blatantly low production values, the majority of Corman's films are surprisingly entertaining, literate, and often characterized by a campy, self-deprecating humour. His influence on contemporary American cinema has been enormous, in large part because of his discovery and promotion of young actors and directors. Though Corman officially retired from directing in 1971, he made a comeback with the well-received Frankenstein Unbound (1990), starring Raul Julia and Bridget Fonda. In that year he also published his autobiography, the aptly titled How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, cowritten with Jim Jerome.

Additional Reading
Mark Thomas McGee, Roger Corman: The Best of the Cheap Acts (1988, reprinted 1997).

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Corman, Roger — • КО РМЕН (Corman) Роджер Уильям (р. 5.4.1926)    амер. режиссёр, сценарист, продюсер. Учился в ун тах США и Великобритании. Работал курьером в кинофирме 20 й век Фокс , лит. агентом, журналистом. В 1953 основал собств. кинофирму и в 1954… …   Кино: Энциклопедический словарь

  • Corman, Roger —    см. Кормен, Роджер …   Режиссерская энциклопедия. Кино США

  • Corman, Roger (William) — born April 5, 1926, Detroit, Mich., U.S. U.S. film director and producer. He directed his first films, Five Guns West and Apache Woman,in 1955, and by 1960 he was one of the most prolific makers of low budget exploitation films. His film versions …   Universalium

  • Corman, Roger (William) — (n. 5 abr. 1926, Detroit, Mich., EE.UU.). Director y productor de cine estadounidense. Dirigió sus primeras películas, Cinco pistolas y Apache Woman en 1955, y ya en 1960 era uno de los realizadores más prolíficos de filmes de bajo presupuesto y… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Roger corman — (* 5. April 1926 in Detroit, Michigan) ist ein einflussreicher US amerikanischer unabhängiger Filmproduzent und Regisseur. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 2 Filmografie 2.1 als Regisseur 2.2 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Roger Corman — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Corman. Roger Corman …   Wikipédia en Français

  • roger — /roj euhr/, interj. 1. Informal. all right; O.K. 2. message received and understood (a response to radio communications). 3. (often cap.) See Jolly Roger. 4. (formerly used in communications to represent the letter R.) [from the name Roger; in… …   Universalium

  • Roger — /roj euhr/, n. a male given name: from Germanic words meaning fame and spear. * * * (as used in expressions) Ascham Roger Bacon Roger Baldwin Roger Nash Bannister Sir Roger Gilbert Casement Sir Roger David Clemens William Roger Pierre Roger… …   Universalium

  • Roger — (as used in expressions) Ascham, Roger Bacon, Roger Baldwin, Roger (Nash) Bannister, Sir Roger (Gilbert) Casement, Sir Roger (David) Clemens, (William) Roger Pierre Roger Corman, Roger (William) Cray, Seymour R(oger) Fenton, Roger Fry, Roger… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Roger Corman — 2006 Roger Corman (* 5. April 1926 in Detroit, Michigan) ist ein einflussreicher US amerikanischer unabhängiger Filmproduzent und Regisseur. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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