By Lee Pfeiffer
Roger Corman, an icon of the motion picture industry, has passed away at age 98. It's impossible to overstate his influence in modern moviemaking. The Detroit native had a colorful life as a young man, attending Oxford and spending time in Paris. He joined the U.S. Navy but after a three-year hitch ended up turning to the motion picture industry. His original career goal of becoming an engineer would not be revisited. He found success in Hollywood when he began to produce independent films on Poverty Row budgets, cranking them out sometimes in a manner of days. These exploitation movies were successful with undemanding audiences, often on the drive-in circuit. Corman, who sometimes collaborated with his younger brother Gene, eventually hit pay dirt when he signed a contract to make films for American-International Pictures, then headed by Samuel P. Arkoff. Corman proved to be a productive director, producer and screenwriter. He films for A.I.P. often dealt with horror and the supernatural. He adapted classic Edgar Allan Poe stories for the big screen and gave new life to the careers of aging stars such as Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. His other films for A.I.P. tapped into the youth revolution of the mid-to-late 1960s. His biker film "The Wild Angels" was made on a shoestring budget but made a fortune and predictably inspired countless copycat films. He also delved into the youth market's fixation with drugswith "The Trip". He would later raise eyebrows by distributing films by some of the most highly acclaimed international filmmakers including Kurosawa, Fellini and Truffaut.
In the film industry, Corman is remembered also for his early recognition of top talent. Among those actors and filmmakers whose early careers were enhanced by working with Corman were Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Ron Howard, James Cameron, Bruce Dern, Joe Dante, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Francis Ford Coppola, Sylvester Stallone and Robert Vaughn. Fittingly, he received an honorary Oscar in 2009.The film industry is unlikely to see his kind again.
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