In the late 60s he set up his own production company, New World Pictures.

As well as continuing to make budget movies, he also began handling films made by distinguished foreign film-makers, including Francois Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini and introducing them to an American audience.

He sold New World Pictures in the 1980s but went on to form two more production companies. He also returned to the director's chair in 1990 with the film Frankenstein Unbound.

Based on a Brian Aldiss novel, it starred John Hurt and Bridget Fonda and featured a brief appearance by Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of the Australian band INXS.

In 2009 he received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement and continued to work well into his eighties, producing the 2010 films Dinoshark and Sharktopus for the Syfy TV channel.

The sheer quantity of films on which he worked is almost without precedent, as was his ability to find and nurture new talent.

Many of his films have taken on cult status and few directors have been so successful at making popular pictures on such tight budgets.

When asked how Corman would like to be remembered, he said, 'I was a filmmaker, just that,'" the family said in their statement.

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