Larry Cohen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Larry Cohen
Cohen in October 2010
Born	Lawrence George Cohen (1936-07-15)July 15, 1936 New York City, U.S.
Died	March 23, 2019(2019-03-23) (aged 82) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Alma mater	City College of New York
Occupation	Producer film director writer
Spouse(s)	Janelle Webb (div. 1980) Cynthia Costas ​ (m. 1994)​
Children	2
Relatives	Ronni Chasen (sister)

Lawrence George Cohen (July 15, 1936 – March 23, 2019) was an American screenwriter, producer, and director of film and television, best known as an author of horror and science fiction films — often containing police procedural and satirical elements — during the 1970s and 1980s, such as It's Alive (1974), God Told Me To (1976), It Lives Again (1978), The Stuff (1985) and A Return to Salem's Lot (1987). He originally emerged as the writer of blaxploitation films such as Bone (1972), Black Caesar, and Hell Up in Harlem (both 1973). Later on he concentrated mainly on screenwriting, including Phone Booth (2002), Cellular (2004) and Captivity (2007).

Early in his career, Cohen was a prolific television writer, creating series such as Branded, Blue Light, Coronet Blue, and The Invaders. In 2006, he returned to the directing chair for Mick Garris's anthology series Masters of Horror, directing the episode "Pick Me Up". In 2017, Cohen was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Early life

Cohen was born in Manhattan, New York City, on July 15, 1936. His sister, Ronni Chasen, was a publicist who worked with him beginning early in his film career. He moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx in New York City at an early age.

Cohen exhibited a voracious appetite for films as a child, visiting the movie theaters at least twice a week, and most of them being double features, the young Cohen managed to consume at least four movies a week. He was a fan of the hard-boiled and film noir movies that featured actors such as Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney; films that were penned by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Cohen was especially a fan of director Michael Curtiz, whose films include The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca, and Dodge City.

He majored in film studies at the City College of New York.

Career

Early work

During the 1950s Cohen worked for the NBC television network, where he learned how to produce teleplays, and shortly afterward began writing his own television scripts. He created the TV series The Invaders and also scripted episodes of The Defenders and The Fugitive.

Cohen began his career as a writer for well-known television series, concentrating his efforts on the crime and detective genres. He penned several episodes of The Defenders (1964) — which starred E.G. Marshall — one episode of Espionage (1964), and episodes of The Fugitive (1964–65). Other writing credits during the 1950s and 1960s included the fantasy-suspense anthologies Kraft Television Theatre (1958) and Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965), the espionage TV series Blue Light (1966) starring Robert Goulet and Coronet Blue (1967) starring Frank Converse, and the science-fiction TV series, The Invaders (1967–1968). In 1966, he wrote the screenplay to the Western film Return of the Seven (also known as Return of the Magnificent Seven), a sequel to the 1960 film The Magnificent Seven, which had the return of Yul Brynner as gunslinger Chris Adams. Four episodes he wrote for Blue Light were edited together to create the theatrical film I Deal in Danger, released in December 1966. He also created the Western TV series Branded (1965–1966) and was the co-creator with Walter Grauman of Blue Light.

1970s

Although Cohen continued to write TV and film scripts during the 1970s – such as Columbo – he further turned his hand to directing. His directorial debut was the 1972 comedy film Bone (aka Beverly Hills Nightmare) starring Yaphet Kotto. Cohen directed Dial Rat for Terror (1973) and Housewife (1973) before creating the It's Alive series in 1974. He wrote, produced and directed the horror film It's Alive. The film – an initial commercial failure – was re-released with a new and sharper advertisement campaign; it went on to become a moderate success, earning over $7 million for Warner Bros. and spawning two sequels, It Lives Again (1978) and It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987).

Cohen followed-up It's Alive with God Told Me To (1976).

It Lives Again (1978) picks up where the first one ended. The score is again provided by Bernard Herrmann. The cast includes John P. Ryan, James Dixon, Andrew Duggan, and Frederic Forrest.

1980s

During the 1980s, Cohen directed, produced, and scripted a number of low-budget horror films, many of which featured actor Michael Moriarty. The first was Q – a.k.a. Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) — about an Aztec god known as Quetzalcoatl (the Winged Serpent) resurrected and nesting atop the Chrysler Building. The film is set in New York City. The cast is headed by Moriarty and co-stars David Carradine, Candy Clark, Richard Roundtree, and James Dixon (another Cohen regular). The Chrysler Building scenes were actually shot on location in and around the building, including the inside and outside of the cone atop the edifice.

Cohen's next project with Moriarty was The Stuff (1985). The film co-stars Danny Aiello, Brian Bloom, Scott Bloom, Andrea Marcovicci, Patrick O'Neal, and Paul Sorvino. Saturday Night Live regular Garrett Morris plays Charlie W. Hobbs a.k.a. Chocolate Chip Charlie, a junk food mogul who assists Mo with his investigation. Cohen cast Moriarty in It's Alive 3: Island of the Alive (1987)—the third part of the Alive Trilogy—and again in A Return to Salem's Lot (1987), the unofficial sequel of Stephen King's novel and TV miniseries Salem's Lot. Cohen finished the 1980s with Wicked Stepmother (1989), in which the late Bette Davis made her last appearance.

1990s

Cohen began the 1990s with his film The Ambulance (1990) starring Eric Roberts. The film is set in New York City and is focused on Josh Baker (Roberts), an aspiring comic book artist, who investigates a string of disappearances: people who are picked up by a mysterious ambulance that never reaches the city hospital. The Ambulance features cameos by Stan Lee, Larry Hama and Jim Salicrup of Marvel Comics. He would direct only two other films during the 1990s, one being the Blaxploitation film Original Gangstas (1996), featuring Jim Brown, Pam Grier, and Fred Williamson. For most of the decade, Cohen concentrated on writing. He penned the remainder of the William Lustig Maniac Cop Trilogy – he had previously scripted Maniac Cop in 1988 – that features Robert Z'Dar as undead Maniac Cop, Matt Cordell, and B-Movie horror actor Bruce Campbell. He then provided the story of the third adaptation of Jack Finney's 1955 science-fiction novel The Body Snatchers, a tale of alien invasion and paranoia: Body Snatchers was directed by Abel Ferrara and starred Forest Whitaker. Throughout the decade Cohen was further involved in various TV projects including NYPD Blue and the Ed McBain-inspired 87th Precinct: Heatwave.

2000s

Cohen's output after the 1990s was less prolific and concentrated solely on scriptwriting, except for a brief return to directing with the Masters of Horror episode "Pick Me Up" (2006). His first project, Phone Booth (2002), became involved in a Hollywood bidding war, the script eventually ending up in the hands of Joel Schumacher. Phone Booth was a commercial success with an estimated budget of $13 million and a worldwide gross of $98 million. The film starred Colin Farrell, Katie Holmes, Kiefer Sutherland, and Forest Whitaker; it was produced by David Zucker.

His next film, another action-crime thriller titled Cellular (2004), also featured phones and, like Phone Booth, it was a modest commercial success with an estimated budget of $25 million and a gross worldwide return of $50 million. Cellular starred Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, William H. Macy, and Jason Statham. Cellular was later re-made as Connected (2008), Cohen being credited with the story. He then scripted the horror-thriller films Captivity (2007) and Messages Deleted (2009); however, both films fared poorly on a critical and commercial level. Cohen nevertheless received acclaim for the above-mentioned Pick Me Up, which he directed for the Mick Garris TV series Masters of Horror (2006). The episode was written by splatterpunk-horror author David Schow, and starred Cohen regular Michael Moriarty.

In 2003, Cohen, together with production partner Martin Poll was at the center of a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox, claiming the company had intentionally plagiarized a script of theirs titled Cast of Characters in order to create the Sean Connery-starring League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 2003. According to the BBC, the lawsuit alleged 'that Mr. Cohen and Mr. Poll pitched the idea to Fox several times between 1993 and 1996, under the name Cast of Characters.' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was an adaptation of the 1999 published comic book series by Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill.

In 2006, Cohen was included in the Masters of Horror TV anthology, which also included – but was not limited to – writers and directors as diverse as Dario Argento, Clive Barker, John Carpenter, Richard Chizmar, Don Coscarelli, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, Joe Dante, Guillermo del Toro, Ernest Dickerson, Stuart Gordon, James Gunn, Sam Hamm, Tom Holland, Tobe Hooper, Lloyd Kaufman, Mary Lambert, John Landis, Joe R. Lansdale, Bentley Little, H.P. Lovecraft, Joe Lynch, William Lustig, Peter Medak, Lucky McKee, Kat O' Shea, Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth, David Schow, and Tim Sullivan. It was created by Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network. Cohen's contribution was the segment Pick Me Up, based on a short story by David Schow, who also wrote the teleplay. It stars Fairuza Balk and Cohen regulars Laurene Landon and Michael Moriarty. Pick Me Up is the story of woman traveling on a bus that has broken down along a stretch of lonely two-lane blacktop. Pick Me Up signaled a brief return to the director's chair for Cohen.

Josef Rusnak remade Cohen's It's Alive in 2009. Still awaiting a score on Rotten Tomatoes, the existing reviews are also very poor. Even Cohen admitted that the remake was dreadful and states: 'It's a terrible picture. It's just beyond awful'. Cohen offered his 1974 script but remarks that it was completely ignored: "I would advise anybody who likes my film to cross the street and avoid seeing the new enchilada."

Personal life

Cohen was married twice: to Janelle Webb, until their divorce in 1980; and then to Cynthia Costas, from 1994 until his death. He had two daughters.

Death

On March 23, 2019, Cohen died from cancer at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at age 82.

Filmography

Film

Acting roles

Television

TV movies

TV series

See also

In Spanish: Larry Cohen para niños