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Roger Corman, Pioneering Independent Producer and King of B Movies, Dies at 98


Roger Corman, who directed and produced hundreds of B movies and discovered Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, has died. He was 98.

Legendary B-movie king Roger Corman, who directed and produced hundreds of low-budget films and discovered such future industry stars as Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, has died. The horror series, which starting with “The Fall of the House of Usher” in 1960, spawned eight low-budget hits including “The Tomb of Ligeia” and “The Masque of Red Death.” They revived the careers of Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone and Peter Lorre and became classics of a kind. His hunger for art films began in 1972 with Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers” and continued with “Autumn Sonata,” “The Story of Adele H,” “Amarcord” and “Fitzcarraldo.” He reinvented their marketing and distribution, booking them in a wider variety of venues and giving audiences outsides the major cities a taste of world cinema they had not previously enjoyed.

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