Roger Corman is a film producer famed for directing and producing low-budget films from the late 1950s through the 2000s. He is notable for many B-movie productions, as well as introducing several high-profile directors into the industry.

Roger Corman Biography

Roger William Corman was born on April 5th, 1926 in Detroit. His father was an engineer and his mother was a homemaker. He grew up Catholic. He attended Beverly Hills High, and then attended Stanford University for engineering. He served in the navy from 1944 through 1946. He finished up his degree from Stanford and starting working as an engineer in 1948. However, after four days of work he quit, and decided to enter the field of film making.

He first worked as a mail clerk for 20th Century Fox and worked his way up to a script reader. When he helped develop a Gregory Peck movie but wasn’t credited, he decided to quit and work for himself. He used the GI Bill to study English at Oxford University in England, and then returned to Los Angeles.

He wrote a script and sold it for the sum of $2000, and worked on the film for free in order to get experience. He used the money from selling the script to raise money and produce his first film, The Monster From the Ocean Floor, in 1954.

This jump started his film making career. He then continued a decades-long spree of low-budget films, some of which were critically acclaimed.

Corman gave a start in the industry to many famous names, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorcese, Ron Howard, and James Cameron. He also was among the first directors to cast actors like William Shatner, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and Peter Fonda. As a nod to his mentorship, many directors cast him for bit parts in their later movies, such as The Silence Of The Lambs and The Manchurian Candidate.

He is credited with directing 55 films, and producing 385 films.

Roger Corman married his wife Julie on December 26th, 1970. He has four children.

Filmography

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) as director

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) as executive producer

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) as director

The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) as director

The Masque of the Red Death (1964) as director

Caged Heat (1974) as producer

Death Race 2000 (1975) as producer

Deathsport (1978) as producer & director

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) as producer

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) as producer

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) as producer

Sorceress (1982) as producer

Deathstalker (1983) as producer

The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984) as producer

The Lost Empire (1984) as producer

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1985) as producer

Barbarian Queen (1985) as producer

Amazons (1986) as producer

Chopping Mall (1986) as director & writer

Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987) as producer

Slumber Party Massacre II (1987) as producer

Sorority House Massacre (1987)

Not of This Earth (1988)

Deathstalker III: The Warriors From Hell (1988) as producer

Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back (1990) as producer

Naked Obsession (1990) as producer

Dune Warriors (1990) as producer

Hard to Die (1990) as producer

Slumber Party Massacre III (1990) as producer

Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans (1991) as producer

Dead Space (1991) as producer

Carnosaur (1993) as producer

Dinosaur Island (1994) as producer

The Fantastic Four (1994) as producer

Black Scorpion (1995) as producer

Escape from Afghanistan (2002) as producer

Supergator (2007) as producer

Sharktopus (2010) as producer

Piranhaconda (2012) as producer

Roger Corman Photo Gallery