Cormanites - IMDb

1. Roger Corman

Roger William Corman was born April 5, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan. Initially following in his father's footsteps, Corman studied engineering at Stanford University but while in school, he began to lose interest in the profession and developed a growing passion for film. Upon graduation, he worked a...

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2. Luana Anders

Actress | Easy Rider

Born Luana Margo Anderson on 12 May, 1938, Luana Anders began her career as a bike messenger at MGM, along with fellow actors, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight and future film producers George Edwards, and Fred Roos. She convinced Nicholson to join her in her improv class with legendary teacher and ...

3. Samuel Z. Arkoff

Dressed to Kill

By the early 1950s, future movie mogul Samuel Z. Arkoff was a brash 30-ish lawyer scratching out a living by representing his in-laws and the Hollywood fringe, which included many of now infamous director/angora-clad transvestite Edward D. Wood Jr.'s social circle. As a shark, Arkoff was physically...

4. Allan Arkush

Producer | Heroes

Allan Arkush was born on April 30, 1948 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Heroes (2006), Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) and Crossing Jordan (2001).

5. Paul Bartel

Actor | Eating Raoul

Paul Bartel was born in Brooklyn in 1938. He decided he wanted to direct animated movies when he was 11 and by 13 had spent a summer working at New York's UPA animation studio. He majored in theater arts at UCLA, and received a Fulbright scholarship to study film direction in Rome, producing a ...

6. Charles Beaumont

Writer | Night of the Eagle

Charles Beaumont was the pseudonym for Charles Leroy Nutt, born on Chicago's North Side on January 2 1929. He also occasionally wrote under the names Charles McNutt and E.T. Beaumont (the latter apparently based on the name of a Texas town). Tragically short-lived, Beaumont was a dynamic and ...

7. Peter Bogdanovich

Director | The Last Picture Show

Peter Bogdanovich was conceived in Europe but born in Kingston, New York. He is the son of immigrants fleeing the Nazis, Herma (Robinson) and Borislav Bogdanovich, a painter and pianist. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Christian, and his mother was from a wealthy Austrian Jewish family. Peter ...

8. Rob Bottin

Make_up_department | RoboCop

Rob Bottin was born on April 1, 1959 in El Monte, California, USA. He is known for RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990) and Se7en (1995).

9. Ellen Burstyn

Actress | Requiem for a Dream

Ellen Burstyn was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Correine Marie (Hamel) and John Austin Gillooly. She is of Irish, French/French-Canadian, Pennsylvania Dutch (German), and Native American ancestry.. She worked a number of jobs before she became an actress. At 14, she was a short-order cook at a ...

10. Susan Cabot

Actress | The Wasp Woman

Susan Cabot was born in Boston and raised in a series of eight foster homes. She attended high school in Manhattan, where she took an interest in dramatics and joined the school dramatic club. Later, while trying to decide between a career in music or art, she illustrated children's books during ...

11. James Cameron

Writer | Avatar: The Way of Water

James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...

12. William Campbell

Actor | Escape from Fort Bravo

William Campbell was born on October 30, 1923 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dementia 13 (1963). He was married to Tereza Pavlovic, Barbara Bricker and Judith Campbell Exner. He died on April 28, 2011 in ...

13. David Carradine

Actor | Kill Bill: Vol. 2

David Carradine was born in Hollywood, California, the eldest son of legendary character actor John Carradine, and his wife, Ardanelle Abigail (McCool). He was a member of an acting family that included brothers Keith Carradine and Robert Carradine as well as his daughters Calista Carradine and ...

14. Steve Carver

Director | Lone Wolf McQuade

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Steve Carver received his first camera when he was eight years old. At 13 he began his formal education in photography, attending the High School of Music & Arts in Manhattan where he received training in art and music. Fascinated by techniques of creating imagery, he ...

15. Eleanor Coppola

Director | Bonjour Anne

Eleanor Coppola was born on May 4, 1936 in Long Beach, California, USA. She was a director and writer, known for Paris Can Wait (2016), Love Is Love Is Love (2020) and Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991). She was married to Francis Ford Coppola. She died on April 12, 2024 in ...

16. Francis Ford Coppola

Producer | Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...

17. Gene Corman

Producer | Night of the Blood Beast

Gene Corman preceded his more-famous brother Roger in the film business, working as a motion picture agent. Beginning in 1956, he and Roger joined forces as producers to make such films as "Hot Car Girl", "Night of the Blood Beast", "Attack of the Giant Leeches" and "Beast from Haunted Cave" for ...

18. Julie Corman

Producer | Chopping Mall

Julie Corman was born on June 22, 1942 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. She is a producer and actress, known for Chopping Mall (1986), A Cry in the Wild (1990) and Rebel Highway (1994). She has been married to Roger Corman since December 23, 1970. They have four children.

19. Mark Damon

Actor | The Fall of the House of Usher

Mark Damon was born on April 22, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for House of Usher (1960), Monster (2003) and 11:14 (2003). He has been married to Margaret Markov since October 1976. They have two children. He was previously married to Barbara Frey.

20. Joe Dante

Director | Innerspace

Joe Dante is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art. After a stint as a film reviewer, he began his filmmaking apprenticeship in 1974 as trailer editor for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. He made his directorial debut in 1976 with Hollywood Boulevard (1976) (co-directed with Allan Arkush)...

21. Jonathan Demme

Director | The Silence of the Lambs

Jonathan Demme was born on February 22, 1944 in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Philadelphia (1993). He was married to Joanne Howard and Evelyn Purcell. He died on April 26, 2017 in ...

22. Bruce Dern

Actor | Nebraska

Two-time Oscar nominee Bruce Dern's tremendous career is made up of playing both modern day heroes and legendary villains. Through decades of lauded performances, Dern has acquired the reputation of being one of the most talented and prolific actors of his generation.

Dern currently appears opposite...

23. Richard Devon

Actor | Magnum Force

Richard Devon wanted to be an actor from the time he was in first grade and played a small part in a school production. After finishing high school he answered a small ad in a Los Angeles newspaper for a school that offered training to the novice actor. This drama school, "Stage Eight", allowed him...

24. Angie Dickinson

Actress | Rio Bravo

Angie Dickinson was born in Kulm, North Dakota, in 1931, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Brown. Mr. Brown was the publisher of The Kulm Messenger. The family left North Dakota in 1942 when Angie was 11 years old, moving to Burbank, California. In December of 1946, when she was a senior at ...

25. Buzz Feitshans

Producer | Rambo: First Blood Part II

Buzz Feitshans was born on January 17, 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a producer and cinematographer, known for Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988) and First Blood (1982).

26. Peter Fonda

Actor | Easy Rider

Peter Henry Fonda was born in New York City, to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario, Canada-born New York socialite Frances Brokaw (born Frances Ford Seymour). He was the younger brother of actress and activist Jane Fonda and the father of actress Bridget Fonda.

Fonda made his professional...

27. Tak Fujimoto

Cinematographer | The Silence of the Lambs

Tak Fujimoto was born on July 12, 1939 in San Diego, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Sixth Sense (1999) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

28. Menahem Golan

Producer | The Apple

Menahem Golan was born Menahem Globus to parents of Polish decent in Tiberias, Israel, in May 1929. In his early years, he was a pilot for the fledgling Israeli Air Force, changing his surname to Golan for patriotic reasons in 1948. A few years later, he took the first step towards his future ...

29. Mark Goldblatt

Editor | Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Mark Goldblatt is known for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and True Lies (1994).

30. Leo Gordon

Actor | Maverick

Big, burly character actor, one of the toughest of screen heavies. New York-born Leo Gordon's combination of a powerful physique, deep, menacing voice and icy, withering glare was guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of even the bravest screen hero. Director Don Siegel, who used Gordon in his ...

31. Pam Grier

Actress | Jackie Brown

Pam Grier was born in Winston-Salem, NC, one of four children of Gwendolyn Sylvia (Samuels), a nurse, and Clarence Ransom Grier Jr., an Air Force mechanic. Pam has been a major African-American star from the early 1970s. Her career started in 1971, when Roger Corman of New World Pictures launched ...

32. Charles B. Griffith

Writer | Little Shop of Horrors

Legendary screenwriter Charles Byron Griffith was born in Chicago on September 23, 1930. His mother and grandmother starred in the famous radio show, "Myrt and Marge," which went on to New York and became a soap opera. After a hitch in the army, Griffith went to California to live with his ...

33. Sid Haig

Actor | House of 1000 Corpses

Tall, bald and nearly always bearded, Sid Haig provided hulking menace to many a low-budget exploitation film and high-priced action film.

Sid Haig was born Sidney Eddie Mosesian on July 14, 1939 in Fresno, California, a screaming ball of hair. His parents, Roxy (Mooradian) and Haig Mosesian, an ...

34. Daniel Haller

Director | The Dunwich Horror

Daniel Haller was born in Glendale, California, and received his art training at the renowned Chouinard Institute. By chance, he happened to meet New World Pictures head Roger Corman in the mid-1950s when Corman was still an unknown, independent producer-director-jack-of-all-trades. Corman ...

35. Curtis Hanson

Director | L.A. Confidential

After small films like The Bedroom Window (1987) and Sweet Kill (1972), Curtis Hanson went on to direct major features including The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), The River Wild (1994) and the Academy Award-winning L.A. Confidential (1997). Setting his sights on another city, Hanson was ...

36. Curtis Harrington

Director | Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

Curtis Harrington was an excellent and shamefully underrated writer and director who specialized in marvelously offbeat and atmospheric low-budget independent horror pictures. Harrington was born on September 17, 1926, in Los Angeles and grew up in Beaumont, California. A hardcore film buff from a ...

37. Jonathan Haze

Actor | The Little Shop of Horrors

Jonathan Haze is an American actor, producer and scary movie idol. Best known for his work in Roger Corman films, and especially for playing "Seymour" in Corman's black comedy cult classic, The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), Haze's career spans more than 20 films in six decades, including ...

38. Monte Hellman

Director | Iguana

Monte Hellman was born on July 12, 1929, in New York City, where his parents were visiting, but he grew up in Los Angeles. He studied drama at Stanford University--on an NBC scholarship--and film at UCLA. After a few years directing in summer theater, Hellman hooked up with legendary "B" movie ...

39. Jack Hill

Writer | Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told

Jack Hill, sometimes referred to as a legendary cult-film director, grew up around movies--his father was a set designer for Warner Brothers since 1925, and later for Walt Disney Studios, where he eventually designed the Disneyland Castle. Jack went to the University of California to study film, ...

40. William Hjortsberg

Writer | Legend

William Hjortsberg was born on February 23, 1941 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Legend (1985), Angel Heart (1987) and Thunder and Lightning (1977). He was married to Margaret Jane Camp, Sharon Leroy and Marian Souidee Renken. He died on April 22, 2017 in Livingston, ...

41. Dennis Hopper

Actor | Easy Rider

Multi-talented and unconventional actor/director regarded by many as one of the true "enfant terribles" of Hollywood who led an amazing cinematic career for more than five decades, Dennis Hopper was born on May 17, 1936, in Dodge City, Kansas. The young Hopper expressed interest in acting from a ...

42. James Horner

Music_department | Titanic

James Horner began studying piano at the age of five, and trained at the Royal College of Music in London, England, before moving to California in the 1970s. After receiving a bachelor's degree in music at USC, he would go on to earn his master's degree at UCLA and teach music theory there. He ...

43. Clint Howard

Actor | Apollo 13

From his acting debut at age two on "The Andy Griffith Show" to his first lead role in the TV series "Gentle Ben," including roles throughout so many blockbuster films, art-house films, ever-popular cult horror films, and valued comedies, with a rare voice adding life to multiple characters of ...

44. Ron Howard

Producer | Arrested Development

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1983), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films.

Howard ...

45. Gale Anne Hurd

Producer | The Terminator

Gale Anne Hurd was born on October 25, 1955 in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Stanford University, she joined New World Pictures as executive assistant to Roger Corman, the company president. She worked her way up through various administrative positions and eventually became ...

46. Russell Johnson

Actor | Gilligan's Island

Long before he was known as "The Professor" in the cult comedy classic Gilligan's Island (1964), Russell Johnson was a well-known character actor, starring in several Westerns and Sci-Fi classics as This Island Earth (1955) and It Came from Outer Space (1953). Johnson grew up in Pennsylvania and ...

47. Jonathan Kaplan

Director | The Accused

Jonathan Kaplan was born in Paris, France, to film composer Sol Kaplan and actress Frances Heflin (the sister of actor Van Heflin and a regular on ABC's soap opera All My Children (1970). He started his career as a child actor in the Broadway production of "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," ...

48. Boris Karloff

Actor | Bride of Frankenstein

Along with fellow actors Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price, Boris Karloff is recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema, and the actor most closely identified with the general public's perception of the "monster" from the classic Mary Shelley book, "Frankenstein". William Henry ...

49. Fred Katz

Soundtrack | Boogie Nights

Composer, songwriter ("Satan Wears a Satin Gown"), conductor, cellist and teacher Fred Katz won scholarships and fellowships in cello and piano. He was the music director for the 7th Army Headquarters, and also for Lena Horne, Mindy Carson, Vic Damone, Ken Nordine and Frankie Laine, and was a ...

50. John Kerr

Actor | Tea and Sympathy

His father Geoffrey Kerr (b. 25 Jan 1895, London; d. 1971) and mother June Walker (b. 14 June 1904, New York City; d. 1966) were successful Broadway and, occasionally, film actors. He went into theatre as soon as he graduated from Harvard. He had an important role in the stage play "Bernadine" in ...

51. Irvin Kershner

Director | Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

Irvin Kershner was born on April 29, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A graduate of the University of Southern California film school, Kershner began his career in 1950, producing documentaries for the United States Information Service in the Middle East. He later turned to television, directing...

52. Sandra Knight

Actress | Thunder Road

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, brought up in Los Angeles from early childhood, Sandra Knight performed as a child - singing, dancing, acting and modeling. She had one of her first professional performances as the lead singer in her group, called, the "String Busters" playing Ukulele, with her ...

53. Martin Kove

Actor | The Karate Kid

Martin Kove was born on March 6, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York. Strong-featured, narrow-eyed actor who has portrayed a mixed bag of both good guys and bad guys. He first turned up on screen in several minor roles, and was noticed as the villainous Nero the Hero in the low-budget road race Death Race ...

54. Diane Ladd

Actress | Wild at Heart

The amazingly gifted and versatile, Ms. Diane Ladd, received immense praise for her dramatic efforts throughout the course of her electric and unique seventy-year career. Her timeless offbeat charm and beauty reminiscent of a lamented Hollywood Golden Era actress gleam in the most understated roles...

55. Alexander Laszlo

Composer | The Great Flamarion

Composer, pianist, conductor, producer and inventor educated at the Budapest Academy and a private music student of A. Szeny, A Kovacs, and V. Herzfeld. He was a piano soloist with the Bluthner Orchestra in Berlin in 1915, and gave piano recitals in Europe from 1921 to 1923. He invented the ...

56. Luis Llosa

Director | Anaconda

Luis Llosa was born in 1951 in Lima, Peru. He is a producer and director, known for Anaconda (1997), The Specialist (1994) and Crime Zone (1988). He is married to Roxana Valdivieso. They have two children. He was previously married to Patricia Pinilla Cisneros.

57. Patrick Magee

Actor | A Clockwork Orange

Born in Armagh, Northern Ireland, Patrick Magee is a classic example of how certain actors rate the stage far more highly than the screen. He was a favorite actor of Samuel Beckett, one of whose greatest plays, 'Krapp's Last Tape', was written specifically for him. He did outstanding work on film, ...

58. Richard Matheson

Writer | Jaws 3-D

Born in New Jersey and raised in Brooklyn, Richard Burton Matheson first became a published author while still a child, when his stories and poems ran in the "Brooklyn Eagle". A lifelong reader of fantasy tales, he made his professional writing bow in 1950 when his short story "Born of Man and ...

59. Ray Milland

Actor | The Lost Weekend

Ray Milland became one of Paramount's most bankable and durable stars, under contract from 1934 to 1948, yet little in his early life suggested a career as a motion picture actor.

Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones in the Welsh town of Neath, Glamorgan, to Elizabeth Annie (Truscott) and Alfred ...

60. Dick Miller

Actor | The Terminator

Born in the Bronx, New York to Russian Jewish immigrant parents (Isidor "Ira" and Rita Blucher Miller), Richard Miller served in the U.S. Navy for a few years and earned a prize title as a middleweight boxer. He settled in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, where he was noticed by producer/director ...

61. Jimmy T. Murakami

Director | Heavy Metal

Jimmy T. Murakami was born on June 5, 1933 in San Jose, California, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Heavy Metal (1981), Breath (1967) and When the Wind Blows (1986). He was married to Ethna Murakami. He died on February 16, 2014 in Dublin, Ireland.

62. Jack Nicholson

Actor | Chinatown

Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...

63. James H. Nicholson

Producer | Panic in Year Zero!

James H. Nicholson was a longtime theater owner and exhibitor and worked as a promo man for Realart Pictures prior to 1954, when he founded American Releasing Corp., Two years later, he decided he wanted to expand globally and, with lawyer Samuel Z. Arkoff, formed American International Pictures. ...

64. Harry Northup

Actor | Taxi Driver

Harry E. Northup has made a living as an actor for 30 years, acting in 37 films, including Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976) (1976 Palme d'Or winner at Cannes), Fighting Mad (1976) (starring role), Citizens Band (1977), Blue Collar (1978), Over the Edge...

65. Vincent Price

Actor | The Abominable Dr. Phibes

Actor, raconteur, art collector and connoisseur of haute cuisine are just some of the attributes associated with Vincent Price. He was born Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, to Marguerite Cobb "Daisy" (Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, who was President of the National Candy ...

66. Stephanie Rothman

Writer | Terminal Island

Writer/director Stephanie Rothman was one of the few female filmmakers who specialized in low-budget drive-in exploitation fare in the '60s and '70s. Her movies are distinguished by gutsy, strong-willed and sympathetic women main characters and a radical libertarian feminist point of view. ...

67. Lou Rusoff

Writer | Beach Party

Lou Rusoff was born on August 3, 1911 in Canada. Lou was a writer and producer, known for Beach Party (1963), Terry and the Pirates (1952) and Panic in Year Zero! (1962). Lou died on June 29, 1963 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

68. Cirio H. Santiago

Director | Water Lily

Producer/director Cirio H. Santiago is the son of Dr. Ciriaco Santiago, who founded Premiere Productions in Manila in 1946. He has two siblings. After starting out as a producer he started directing English-language movies in the early 70s. Santiago became one of the pioneers of the "Blaxploitation...

69. John Sayles

Writer | Lone Star

A bright child, John Sayles began reading novels before age 9. A Williams College grad in 1972, he shunned a corporate career to work various blue-collar jobs, moving to east Boston to take a factory job. He wrote stories and submitted them to various magazines, and the Atlantic Monthly gave him ...

70. Martin Scorsese

Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...

71. Pepe Serna

Actor | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

Durable Mexican-American actor Pepe Serna has appeared in more than 100 feature films and 300 television shows, but is most recognized for his gritty support performances in a variety of motion pictures, including Scarface (1983) as Al Pacino's ill-fated cocaine partner, as well as the western ...

72. William Shatner

Actor | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.

Shatner was born ...

73. Talia Shire

Actress | Rocky

Talia Rose Shire is an American actress who played roles as Connie Corleone in The Godfather films and Adrian Balboa in the Rocky series. For her work in The Godfather Part II and Rocky, Shire was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively, and for the ...

74. Don Simpson

Producer | Days of Thunder

Mr. Simpson was an extravagant movie producer whose blockbusters Flashdance (1983), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and Top Gun (1986) helped define the pop culture of the 1980s. Mr. Simpson teamed with Jerry Bruckheimer in 1983 to produce these hits. In 1985 and 1988, the duo were named producers of the...

75. Sylvester Stallone

Actor | Rocky

Sylvester Stallone is an athletically built, dark-haired American actor/screenwriter/director/producer, the movie fans worldwide have been flocking to see Stallone's films for over 40 years, making "Sly" one of Hollywood's biggest-ever box office draws.

Sylvester Stallone was born on July 6, 1946, ...

76. Don Steele

Actor | Death Race 2000

Don Steele was born on April 1, 1936 in Hollywood, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Death Race 2000 (1975), Gremlins (1984) and Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979). He was married to Shaune McNamara Steele. He died on August 5, 1997 in Hollywood, California, USA.

77. Don Stroud

Actor | Licence to Kill

The younger son of vaudeville great Clarence Stroud (of the Stroud Twins) and singer Ann McCormack, who toured the world with Frank Sinatra, Don Stroud grew up on the beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, where his stepfather, Paul Livermore, and his mother, Ann, owned and operated the popular Embers ...

78. Lewis Teague

Director | Cujo

Extremely efficient and underrated director Lewis Teague was born on March 8th, 1938, in Brooklyn, NY. He apprenticed with director Sydney Pollack at Universal Television, and was a production manager on the landmark rock concert documentary Woodstock (1970).

Teague found gainful employment working ...

79. Robert Towne

Writer | Chinatown

Writer, director, producer, actor. Born in Los Angeles, California, USA, and raised in the seaport town of San Pedro. Got his start acting and writing for legendary exploitation director/producer Roger Corman. Came into his own during the 1970s when he was regarded as one of the finest ...

80. Gus Trikonis

Actor | West Side Story

Gus Trikonis was a very efficient and underrated director of delightfully down-and-dirty '70s drive-in, low-budget, exploitation fare. Born on November 21, 1937, in New York City, Trikonis began his show business career as both an actor and a dancer in Broadway plays and movies. His most popular ...

81. Don Wilson

Actor | Batman Forever

Don "The Dragon" Wilson is considered the greatest kick-boxing champion in the sport's history. A native of South Florida, Wilson began fighting in the late 1970s. In a career which spanned 4 decades, he won 11 world kick-boxing championships, among them the WKA, STAR, WKC, PKO Lightheavyweight ...

82. Frank Wolff

Actor | Il grande silenzio

Frank Wolff started his career by acting in several Roger Corman films. However, Wolff had to travel to Europe to be successful. He was finally able to become a well known actor in Italy and Europe with his performance in Salvatore Giuliano (1962) and had roles in many European film productions. ...

83. Mary Woronov

Actress | Eating Raoul

Mary Woronov was born on December 8, 1943, at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. A surgeon's stepdaughter, she was raised in Brooklyn Heights and attended Cornell University as a sculpting major. After a class trip to Andy Warhol 's Silver Factory, she joined Warhol's entourage and starred ...

84. Jim Wynorski

Director | The Lost Empire

A 25-year veteran in the Hollywood exploitation field, writer/producer/director Jim Wynorski is responsible for over 150 varied motion pictures in a myriad of genres. Leaving behind a successful commercial business in New York, Wynorski relocated to California in 1980 and soon found himself on the ...