Roger Corman Biography

Fast Facts

• The Provincetown International Film Festival honored him with its Filmmaker on the Edge Award in 2012
• Won the first Producer's Award ever given by the Cannes Film Festival
• The Producers Guild of America gave him its David O․ Selznick Award in 2006
• Earned his degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University
• After quitting his engineering career after four days, he found work in the 20th Century Fox mail room, soon working his way up to being a story reader
• Made a reputation for producing films quickly and cheaply, often directing them in 10 days or less
• Known as "The Kind of the B's," he has produced such cult classics as "The Little Shop of Horrors" and is credited with cultivating such genres as the mutant monster film, the bicker and racing film, the gothic horror film and space operas
• Made a series of films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe that won him the greatest critical acclaim of his career
• One of the first American directors to bring foreign cinema to the U․S․, he distributed Akira Kurosawa, Francois Trauffaut, Frederico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman
• Enjoyed piloting model planes when he was a child