R.I.P. ROGER CORMAN: FILM LEGEND

ROGER CORMAN (April 5th, 1926 – May 9th, 2024) – Many words have already been said about the passing of this film industry legend and I’m sure many, many more are yet to be said. From the 1950s to the current year – and with projects still in production – Roger William Corman was a Hollywood fixture.

I’m in no way qualified to give a comprehensive overview of the impact of this entrepreneur or his influence on some of the biggest directors, producers and actors in American cinema. Most people at first think you’re exaggerating when you mention the exhaustive list of people who figuratively learned at the knee of this Grand Old Man or who were given their first shot via a Corman Production. Often in one of his B movies! 

Roger was never known as someone who lacked talent, he was just in it for the money most of the time, and therefore kept his budgets tight and his schedules tighter. From 50s monster movies to Raging Youth films to whatever horror trends were ascendant to big-screen soap operas that could be more explicit with their content, Roger Corman was there, raking in bucks and working with future giants of the industry.

Francis Ford Coppola, John Carpenter, James Cameron, John Sayles, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Joe Dante and countless others got some of their earliest directing experiences on Corman productions. Screenwriters like Robert Towne got early “real industry work”, as did actors like Jack Nicholson, Sally Kirkland, Bruce Dern, Sylvester Stallone, Pam Grier, Peter Fonda, etc.  When you watch just about any theatrical release from America made over the last several decades the chances are at least one of the professionals involved got their start working on a Corman picture. 

Roger even launched studios, then sold them and launched others. He also authored a book titled How I Made A Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime. It was already more than a hundred when that book came out in 1998 and the number kept rising over the next three decades. 

Inevitably, some – well, nearly all – of Corman’s cheap sci-fi and horror flicks turned up on Movie Host Shows since at least the 1960s. The smart hosts like Joel Hodgson never implied that Roger’s work was bad per se, just quick and cheap. Obviously, with my love of Bad Movie Lore I’m very fond of Roger’s cheap monsters, shoddy spaceships, you name it. 

To mark his passing, though, Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at some of the bit parts and cameos “the King of the B’s” made in movies, often appearing as a way the big-name directors could thank Corman for whatever role he played in their career. 

QUALITY FILMS – To me, Roger will always be the unnamed Senator in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather Part Two who asks “Mr. Corleone, could you identify the man seated to your left, please?”

           He also showed up in Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs as FBI Director Hayden Burke, in Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 as a Congressman, Joe Dante’s The Howling as “Man in Phone Booth,” as Mr. Roger Laird in Demme’s Philadelphia, as “Studio Executive” in Wes Craven’s Scream 3, and for Demme again in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate.   

HIS OWN BLACK & WHITE B-MOVIES – Roger put in appearances in Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954) as “Tommy,” in Day the World Ended (1955) as Nelson (photograph only in a Hitchcockian touch), in War of the Satellites (1958) as a Ground Control worker, and in The Wasp Woman (1959) as “Doctor in the Hospital”. 

“It’s about family.”

HIS OWN BLACK & WHITE JUVENILE DELINQUENT, ACTION AND HOT ROD FLICKS – Mr. Corman can be spotted in his 1954 version of The Fast and the Furious as “Roadblock State Trooper,” in The Crybaby Killer (with Jack Nicholson) (1958) as Joe, the TV Truck Man, in Hot Car Girl (1958) as “Cop Who Finds Note,” and in Ski Troop Attack (1960) as “German Soldier Entering Cabin.”   

HIS OWN COLOR FILMS – Too many to list, but some examples are Battle of Blood Island (1960) as “Soldier on Hilltop,” in Atlas (1961) as “Greek Soldier,” Cannonball (1976) as “District Attorney,” Swing Shift (1984) as Mr. MacBride, and Lords of the Deep (1989) as “Corporate Executive.” 

Rest in Peace, Roger Corman. We can honestly say we will never see your like again. As cliched as it may seem, you and your creations are pure Americana.