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He directed horror movies and low budget blaxploitation after creating the 1960s TV series "Branded" and "The Invaders".
Larry Cohen, the avant-garde writer and director who has stood out in the genres of horror and blaxploitation with innovative cult classics such as It's alive, God told me to, Black Caesar and Hell in Harlem, is dead. He was 77 years old.
Cohen died Saturday night in Los Angeles surrounded by loved ones, said his friend Shade Rupe, actor and publicist The Hollywood journalist.
Cohen began his career writing for television in the late 1950s and created Chuck Connors, star of the latest Hollywood commercial Ronni Chasen. Mark for NBC and the cult science fiction drama The invaders, with Roy Thinnes, for ABC.
More recently, the New York native wrote the screenplay for the thriller Joel Schumacher Telephone booth (2002) with Colin Farrell.
By storing his sneaky commentary movies on society and ironic humor, Cohen's work felt sharper and more punchy than similar low-budget dishes.
"There were things happening all over the country and in the world that I wanted to try to deal with in my films," Cohen said in an interview in 2017 with Diabolical Magazine. "Take [his 1985 feature] The thing, which concerned products sold on the market that kill people. There are still so many products like this one sold today. At that time, cigarettes were still advertised on television.
"These days, it's not cigarettes, but drugs that will probably kill you just as quickly." In fact, each time they announce another pill, they have an afterthought explaining all the effects. secondary – like death. The thing was an allegory of consumerism in America and the fact that big companies will sell you anything to get your money, even if it kills you. "
BONE (1972), Cohen's first film was based on a black thief (Yaphet Kotto) who entered a Beverly Hills home and held a white couple hostage (Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten). His second feature film was Black Caesar (1973), an update of the 1931 classic of Edward G. Robinson Little Caesar Fred Williamson played the role of a gangster who rises to head a Harlem crime syndicate. This led to a sequel, Hell in Harlemwho hit the theaters barely eight months later.
"Many of the films I've made are extremely volatile and deal with controversial topics like racism," said Cohen. "My first picture, BONE, is ahead of its time – even today. When I was successful in the '70s, I thought that by 2015, racism would be over – but that' s not the case.
"Now, there are people being shot by cops, cops, and riots in the streets – it's still the same thing, blacks versus whites – and it's unfortunate that it's not the same. after all these years, nothing has changed. [after] a black president and a black attorney general, no matter, we're back where we started. "
It's alive (1974), which he wrote and directed, he composed a score of composer Bernard Herrmann and creature effects of Rick Baker. Turning around a horribly deformed mutant baby that unleashes murderous murders, it generates two sequels. He also wrote and produced Maniac Cop (1988), and this horror title also gave birth to a pair of follow ups.
Cohen wrote and barred God told me to, a 1976 satire on top-killers, starring Tony Lo Bianco and awarding Andy Kaufman his first screen credit, and Q (1982), which turned the iconic New York Chrysler Building into a nesting place for a winged snake resembling a dragon.
In 2018, Steve Mitchell turned on Cohen's cameras for the documentary King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohenand Martin Scorsese, J.J. Abrams, John Landis and Williamson were among those who told stories about the independent Maverick. "Making a case strong enough for his idiosyncratic vision and tenacity, it is likely that moviegoers rush to discover where they can see obscurities like God told me to and Q, "John DeFore wrote in his opinion for The Hollywood journalist.
Lawrence Cohen was born on July 15, 1941 in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. The family moved to the Brondale neighborhood of Riverdale and spent money on movie tickets offering to carry groceries for tips.
Cohen graduated from the City College of New York in 1963 with a degree in Film Studies. After landing a job at NBC, he gave himself an intensive course on the art of producing television programs, and in his early twenties he wrote television scripts.
Cohen burst onto television in 1958 with an adaptation of Ed McBain's crime novel. The Eighty-seventh City for the Kraft television theater. Over the next decade, he would write episodes Zane Gray Theater, Surfside 6, Checkmate, The fugitive and The defenders.
He created Mark, who ran for two seasons (1965-1966) and starred in 6 foot 6 Connors as a disgraced officer unjustly beat out cavalry for cowardice. "My intellectual concept of the series is that it's like a Shakespearean tragedy," said Cohen in a 1965 interview. TV guide. "You must have a great man to live the real tragedy, which is why I love so much Chuck Connors in this part.He is so great that he is the biggest underdog of the world. Where is."
Cohen then created ABC's 1966 short-lived drama Blue light, starring Robert Goulet as a double agent, and CBS & # 39; Coronet Blue, an offbeat drama of 1967 about an amnesiac (Frank Converse) trying to unravel the mystery of who he is (the only thing he can remember are the two words of the cryptic title of the series) before coming up with The invaders.
Cohen drew this idea from two of his favorite 1950s science fiction movies – Invasion of the body thieves and Invaders of Mars. It was an architect (Thinnes) who sees extraterrestrials land on Earth and tries to convince everyone that there is danger.
"The main asset of the series is the fact that we are all a little paranoid and that it's easy to identify with someone who is a single man fighting the entire world" invaders Producer Alan A. Armer said in a 2000 article for ClassicTVhistory.com. "I mean, that's what all true heroes are, if you look at the great myths and legends and the great stories that have been told."
Although it lasted only two seasons (1967-1968), The invaders acquired cult status and paved the way for shows such as The X-Files.
Cohen also created the 1973-1974 ABC series Griff, featuring Lorne Greene – right after his long boon run – like a cop turned private eye.
The first scenario of Cohen was for the future Return of the seven magnificent (1966), followed by scripts for Dad went hunting (1969) Screaming baby screaming (1969) and El Condor (1970).
In 1996, Cohen revisited his roots in blaxploitation by directing Gangstas of origin, an action drama that pays tribute to 70s movies and stars such as Williamson, Pam Grier, Jim Brown, Paul Winfield, Richard Roundtree and Ron O. Neal.
Cohen also wrote and directed Private records of J. Edgar Hoover (1977) Full moon high (nineteen eighty one), Special effects (1984) Deadly Illusion (1987), A return to Salem's lot (1987), Bette Davis-starrer Naughty mother-in-law (1989) and L & # 39; ambulance (1990) and wrote the scenarios for Bestseller (1987), Guilty as a sin (1993) and Captivity (2007).
He wrote an episode of ABC NYPD Blue and directed for the last time on a payout of 2006 from Showtime Masters of Horror.
In the early 1970s, Cohen purchased a 1929 Spanish-style dwelling built by William Randolph Hearst's family. And like any low-budget filmmaker worthy of the name, he made good use of it.
"Almost all the movies I've done have ended up shooting a scene in my house just for happiness," said Cohen in an interview with The Ringer in 2018. (The house in which Kotto broke into BONE was his.)
"Sometimes it was a nightclub, sometimes a hotel suite, sometimes a billiard room.all we needed, we had all kinds of apartments tidied up outside We could install false walls and create sets without wasting a lot of time, it was great because I did not have to go to work in the morning, I could get out of bed, go down and direct the film. "
Famous director Samuel Fuller owned the house before him. When he met Cohen at a party, he asked him if he could bring his wife with her to see her. Cohen invited them, the two became friends and Fuller portrayed a vampire hunter for Cohen in Lot of Salem.
In 1988, the Academy of Science Fiction Films, Fantasy and Horror awarded him the George Pal Memorial Award.
Cohen was married to Janelle Webb from 1964 to 1987 and has participated in several of her films, ranging from production to songwriting to songwriting. The couple had five children – Pam, Victoria Jill, Melissa, Bobby and Louis – and all can be seen in daddy's movies.
Cohen also leaves his second wife, psychotherapist Cynthia Costas Cohen. She has also appeared in her films.
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