But First

Roger Corman, above right, in Silence of the Lambs, in which he played FBI Director Hayden Burke. The film was directed by Jonathan Demme, one of many young directors Corman helped launch. Orion. – Credit: C/O

We love Roger Corman, who died in May at the age of 98 after a spectacular Hollywood career that helped launch such luminaries as Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Charles Bronson, and James Cameron, among many others.

After studying industrial engineering at Stanford University and serving in the United States Navy, he got a job as a story reader in which he rejected most scripts — but saw the potential in one that became 1950’s The Gunfighter, with Gregory Peck.

When his boss got all the credit, Corman resolved to make his own films — which he churned out quickly, on the cheap, with verve and panache. He was masterful at marketing them, especially to rebellious teenagers, as the following posters illustrate.

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