Lawrence G. "Larry" Cohen (July 15, 1936 - March 23, 2019) was an American film writer, director, and producer best known for his low-budget works with heavy social commentary. He originally made his way through Hollywood back in the 1960's as a screenwriter and producer. Having gained enough money and a strong enough reputation to start making his own movies, he created his first film, Bone (aka The Housewife). Unfortunately, it had a great deal of difficulty getting distribution and finding an audience, so consequently did very poorly in the box office. After being encouraged to write and direct a blaxploitation film, he created the considerably more successful Black Caesar. Soon after, he turned to making horror movies, for which he is probably most famous.
In his last years, he returned to writing screenplays, most of which are made-for-TV movies; his final directorial effort was an episode of the short-lived Showtime anthology series Masters of Horror ("Pick Me Up"). He died March 23, 2019 of cancer.
Notable Works:
- Branded (1965)- series creator
- The Invaders (1967) (1967)- series creator
- Bone (1972)
- Black Caesar (1973)
- And the sequel: Hell Up In Harlem (1974)
- Columbo (1973-1977) - episodes "An Exercise in Fatality", "Candidate for Crime", and "Any Old Port in a Storm"
- It's Alive (1974)
- And the sequels: It Lives Again (1978) and It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987)
- God Told Me To (1976)
- The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977)
- Full Moon High (1981)
- Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)
- Special Effects (1984)
- The Stuff (1985)
- A Return to 'Salem's Lot (1987)
- Maniac Cop (1988) (Writer and Producer)
- Uncle Sam (1997) (Writer)
- Phone Booth (2002) (Writer)
- Cellular (2004) (Writer)
- Captivity (2007) (Writer)
