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Larry Cohen

Highest Rated: 100% King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (2017)

Lowest Rated: 9% Captivity (2007)

Birthday: Jul 15, 1941

Birthplace: Kingston, New York, USA

After honing his craft writing and creating series for 1950s and 60s TV and having several screenplays produced in the 60s, Cohen became a major low-rent auteur of 70s cheapie genre movies. His ambitious 1972 debut, "Bone" (aka "Dial Rat for Terror" or "Beverly Hills Nightmare") featured Yaphet Kotto as a Black intruder who has a surprising showdown with an affluent white couple (Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten) in their Beverly Hills home. This bizarre black comedy was an attempt to adapt the social satirical concerns of British playwright Joe Orton and Jean-Luc Godard (circa "Weekend" 1967) into an American milieu. Cohen went on to produce, write, and direct a series of somewhat schlocky but thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining films. Cohen favored NYC locations, veteran Hollywood performers (Broderick Crawford, Dan Dailey, Celeste Holm, Jose Ferrer, June Havoc) and composers (Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa) and quirky leading men (Michael Moriarty, David Carradine). His was a morally ambiguous universe without true heroes or absolute villains. His notable 70s work includes the "blaxploitation" entry "Black Caesar" (1972) and its sequel, "Hell Up In Harlem" (1973), the cult horror film about a monstrous baby, "It's Alive" (1974)--followed by two sequels, the supernatural cop thriller, "God Told Me To/Demon" (1976) and the subversive two-bit biopic "The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover" (1977). In the late 70s and throughout the 80s, Cohen provided stories and/or screenplays for the films of others (William Richert's "The American Success Company" 1979, "I, the Jury" 1982, "Scandalous" 1984, "Best Seller" 1987) while continuing to produce, direct, and write self-conscious, low-budget pictures. These include the NYC cop vs. winged serpent thriller, "Q" (1982); "The Stuff" (1985), an unsavory horror satire about a devilish dessert; "A Return to Salem's Lot" (1987), a horror sequel/spoof featuring the inimitable filmmaker Sam Fuller as an intrepid vampire hunter; and Bette Davis's final film, "Wicked Stepmother" (1989). Cohen also wrote and produced the popular "Maniac Cop" (1988) and its two sequels. As a writer-director, Cohen's first film for the 90s was "The Ambulance"--a suspense thriller about a mysterious ambulance that abducts NYC residents--which opened abroad but never received an American theatrical release. In 1993, he kept busy as a screenwriter scripting the Sidney Lumet-directed legal/psychological thriller, "Guilty as Sin" and providing the story for Abel Ferrara's take on "Bodysnatchers." Just when the industry might be tempted to write off Cohen as a progenitor of B-grade (and sometimes C- and D-grade) material--however knowing and irony-laced--he would inevitably sell a screenplay that would involve major Hollywood talent. Meanwhile, he would continue to do journeyman work regularly writing and directing (and sometimes even providing music for) a never-ending series of TV movies, cable films and direct-to-video fare. Cohen provided the ultimate case-in-point when he sold the screenplay for the hitman thriller "Phone Booth" (2003) to Twentieth Century Fox. Although Cohen's last big-screen credit had been on the ultra-schlocky horror film "Uncle Sam," the script for "Phone Booth" managed to attract the attention of potential leading men such as Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey, Will Smith and Mel Gibson before the film (with uncredited rewrites by Brian Helgeland and Stephen Gaghan) was finally lensed by director Joel Schumacher with hot newcomer Colin Farrell in the leading role (The movie also garnered notorious pre-release publicity when its 2002 release date was postponed for several months after a string of similar real-life murders occurred in the Washington D.C. area just before the film was supposed to open). The result was a re-heating of Cohen's career, landing him script purchases and development deals with virtually every major studio in Hollywood. The first result of Cohen's second coming was the similarly telephonic thriller "Cellular" (2004), for which he received story credit. Cohen's next screenwriting credit came with the psychological horror "Captivity" (2007), followed by the reboot of his most famous film, "It's Alive" (2009). Cohen's final pair of screenwriting credits came later that same year, with "Messages Deleted" (2009) and "The Gambler, the Girl, and the Gunslinger" (2009). Larry Cohen quietly retired after that final burst of activity, and died on March 23, 2019 in Beverly Hills at the age of 82.

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Highest rated movies

100% 84% King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen Watchlist
79% 51% God Told Me To
Watchlist
75% 71% American Grindhouse
Watchlist
73% 50% The Stuff
Watchlist
72% 43% Q
Watchlist
72% 64% Phone Booth Watchlist
69% 54% Best Seller
Watchlist
65% 41% It's Alive
Watchlist
64% 63% Black Caesar
Watchlist
62% 54% Maniac Cop 2
Watchlist

Filmography

Movies

Credit
100% 84% King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen Self - 2017
75% 71% American Grindhouse Unknown (Character) $4.6K 2010
No Score Yet 50% The Gambler, the Girl and the Gunslinger Screenwriter - 2009
No Score Yet 24% Messages Deleted Writer - 2009
No Score Yet 6% It's Alive Screenwriter - 2008
No Score Yet 73% Connected Screenwriter - 2008
No Score Yet 40% Trailer Park of Terror Co-Producer - 2008
9% 23% Captivity Writer $2.6M 2007
56% 58% Cellular Writer $32.0M 2004
72% 64% Phone Booth Writer $46.6M 2002
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Truth About Lying Original Music - 1998
No Score Yet 33% When Justice Fails Original Music - 1998
60% 29% Uncle Sam Writer - 1997
No Score Yet No Score Yet Burnt Eden Bobby (Character) - 1997
53% 47% Original Gangstas Director $3.3M 1996
No Score Yet 16% Virus Original Music - 1996
No Score Yet 34% The Ex Writer - 1996
No Score Yet No Score Yet As Good as Dead Director,
Producer
- 1995
38% 43% Guilty as Sin Screenwriter $22.7M 1993
No Score Yet 15% Badge of Silence: Maniac Cop 3 Screenwriter - 1992
62% 54% Maniac Cop 2 Screenwriter - 1991
No Score Yet 48% The Ambulance Director,
Screenwriter
- 1990
No Score Yet 19% Wicked Stepmother Director $43.7K 1989
56% 41% Maniac Cop Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1988
69% 54% Best Seller Screenwriter $2.9M 1987
No Score Yet 23% A Return to Salem's Lot Director,
Screenwriter,
Executive Producer
- 1987
50% 16% It's Alive III: Island of the Alive Director - 1987
No Score Yet 20% Deadly Illusion Director,
Screenwriter
- 1987
73% 50% The Stuff Director,
Screenwriter,
Executive Producer
- 1985
No Score Yet 18% Perfect Strangers Director - 1984
No Score Yet No Score Yet Special Effects Director,
Writer
- 1984
45% 42% I, the Jury Screenwriter - 1982
72% 43% Q Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1982
No Score Yet 28% The Winged Serpent Director - 1982
No Score Yet 38% Full Moon High Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1981
No Score Yet No Score Yet See China and Die Director - 1980
No Score Yet No Score Yet The American Success Company Screenwriter - 1979
No Score Yet 47% The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover Director,
Producer
- 1978
47% 27% It Lives Again Director - 1978
79% 51% God Told Me To Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1976
65% 41% It's Alive Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1974
22% 50% Hell up in Harlem Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1973
64% 63% Black Caesar Director,
Writer,
Producer
- 1973
57% 75% Bone Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 1972
No Score Yet No Score Yet B.J. Lang Presents Art Director - 1971
No Score Yet 33% El Condor Screenwriter - 1970
No Score Yet 17% Scream, Baby, Scream Screenwriter - 1969
No Score Yet 50% Daddy's Gone A-Hunting Writer,
Screenwriter
- 1969
13% 34% Return of the Seven Writer - 1966

TV

Credit
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs Director 2019
No Score Yet 86% Berlin Station Writer 2017
No Score Yet No Score Yet Borgia Unknown (Character) 2014
63% 80% Masters of Horror Director 2006
83% 95% NYPD Blue Writer 1995
No Score Yet No Score Yet Rat Patrol Writer 1966
No Score Yet No Score Yet Branded Writer 1965
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Fugitive Writer 1964