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Jonathan Haze had over 40 screen acting credits to his name, with many of those credits being earned on Roger Corman productions – and the one credit that stands out among all others came when Haze took on the role of Seymour Krelborn in Corman’s 1960 man-eating plant classic The Little Shop of Horrors. We lost Corman earlier this year, when he passed away at the age of 98. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that we’ve lost Haze as well. His daughter Rebecca informed them that Haze passed away at his home in Los Angeles this past Saturday at the age of 95.

A cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was born with the name Jack Aaron Schachter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1929. He worked the stage for Rich and was Josephine Baker’s stage manager for two years before he got into acting. He hitchhiked to L.A. and got a...

Jonathan Haze, who starred for Roger Corman as the flower shop assistant Seymour Krelborn in the original The Little Shop of Horrors, just one of two dozen films he made with the B-movie legend, has died. He was 95.

Haze died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles, his daughter, Rebecca Haze, told The Hollywood Reporter.

A cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was a valuable and versatile member of Corman’s repertory company from 1954 — when he acted in The Fast and the Furious and Monster From the Ocean Floor — until 1967, when he appeared in The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and served as an assistant director on The Born Losers.

In one of his more noteworthy turns, Haze portrayed one of the three teenagers who stumble upon $250,000 worth of heroin and become dealers in Warner Bros. drama Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), the first feature directed by Irvin Kershner.

The Pittsburgh...

Jonathan Haze, who originated the Seymour role in cult classic 1960 horror comedy The Little Shop of Horrors during a long collaboration with its director Roger Corman, has died. He was 95.

His daughter, Rebecca Haze, told Deadline that he died peacefully of natural causes on November 2 at his home in Los Angeles but did not provide a cause.

Jonathan Haze and Dorothy Malone in ‘Five Guns West,’ 1955

Born in Pittsburgh on April 1, 1929, Haze was discovered working in a gas station by Wyott Ordung, who gave him a role in Monster from the Ocean Floor, which Corman produced. That same year, he cast Haze in The Fast and the Furious and then as Billy Candy in the 1955 western Five Guns West, starring John Lund and Dorothy Malone.

They were the first of nearly 20 movies they made together, including 1955’s Apache Woman and Day the World Ended; 1956’s Gunslinger, The Oklahoma Woman, It...

This article was originally published in Empire in October 2020

There’s never been a filmmaker like Roger Corman – putting some of the wildest premises in Hollywood history onto the screen, igniting the careers of countless fellow cinematic legends, and continuing to create against all the odds. Following his death at the age of 98, Empire presents our 2020 interview with the man himself – looking back on his wildest career moves, sharing his vital rules for making movies, and detailing the projects he still had in the works. Because even in his 90s, Corman was giving his all to cinema.

No force on Earth has ever been able to stop Roger Corman. From the moment he bankrolled his first film, Monster From The Ocean Floor, back in 1954, he has worked at a velocity that makes even Ben Wheatley look like Stanley Kubrick. Churning out one low-budget genre flick after another, he’s given...

By Hank Reineke

Though heavyweights Columbia and Universal produced as many serials as Republic Pictures from 1929-1956, the latter studio is generally best known for its exciting sound-era chapter-plays. Universal and the less widely known Mascot Pictures were in the game the earliest; both studios began releasing their sound serials in 1929. Mascot would only last six years or so. Universal – choosing to concentrate exclusively on the production of feature films – effectively got out of the serial business in 1946. Republic and Columbia hung on to the production of chapter-plays the longest; they released their final serials in 1955 and 1956, respectively.

Republic wasn’t only a serials factory. The studio was in the low budget feature filmmaking business as well, busily churning out a dizzying array of westerns, adventure pictures, and mysteries. They would test the box-office potentials of the horror film market during the 1940s with limited success. As a second-tier “Poverty Row” studio,...

With a title like this you know it has to be good. Irvin Kershner got his start directing on this small-scale tale of kids and crime. Jonathan Haze and Abby Dalton are standouts in the cast, while the uncredited executive producer who put up the cash is said to have been Roger Corman. It's a beautiful widescreen transfer -- the film was one of the first features shot by Haskell Wexler, who is also uncredited. Stakeout on Dope Street DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 83 min. / Street Date June 22, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Yale Wexler, Jonathon Haze, Morris Miller (Stever Marlo), Abby Dalton, Allen Kramer, Herman Rudin, Philip Mansour, Andrew J. Fenady, Herschel Bernardi, Coleman Francis. Cinematography Mark Jeffrey (Haskell Wexler) Film Editor Melvin Sloan Original Music Richard Markowitz Story and Screenplay by Andrew J. Fenady, Irvin Kershner, Irvin Schwartz Produced by Andrew J. Fenady Directed...

Samuel Fuller's first picture under his Fox contract is a fine Korean War 'suicide squad' tale, filmed on a sound stage but looking quite authentic. Richard Basehart leads a fine cast. Lots of cigars get chomped, and Gene Evans is actually named Sgt. Rock. Plus an excellent commentary from Trailers from Hell's new guru Michael Schlesinger. Fixed Bayonets! Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1951 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 92 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Richard Basehart, Gene Evans, Michael O'Shea, Richard Hylton, Craig Hill, Skip Homeier, Neyle Morrow, Wyott Ordung, John Doucette, George Conrad Cinematography Lucien Ballard Art Direction George Patrick, Lyle Wheeler Film Editor Nick DeMaggio Original Music Roy Webb Written by Samuel Fuller from a novel by John Brophy Produced by Jules Buck Directed by Samuel Fuller

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Sam Fuller's third independent film The Steel Helmet was a risky proposition...

Minimalist 'Z' monster movies really took off in the 1950s, earning good money on tiny outlays of time, money, and sometimes talent. Dan Milner's directing is competent, to be kind, but the 'nothing happens' script is a sure-fire soporific -- Roger Corman surely didn't worry about the competition. The good news is Richard Harland Smith's commentary, which delivers more illuminating info on this show than we thought existed. The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1956 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date January 5, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Kent Taylor, Cathy Downs, Michael Whalen, Helene Stanton, Phillip Pine, Rodney Bell, Vivi Janiss, Michael Garth, Pierce Lyden . Cinematography Brydon Baker Film Editor Dan Milner Original Music Ronald Stein Written by Lou Rusoff, Dorys Lukather Produced by Jack Milner Directed by Dan Milner

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In his trailer commentary for The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, Joe Dante remarks that...

Corman's World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel

In 2009, producer-director Roger Corman was given an Honorary Academy Award. He'd been making movies since the mid-1950s, starting with titles such as Monster From The Ocean Floor right up to modern schlock like Sharktopus.

Obviously, the Oscar wasn't for these contributions to the art of cinema, rather for what Corman achieved away from the camera. Corman's studios provided a crash course in film-making for hundreds of young hopefuls. His films were made fast and cheap, and if he took you under his wing you wouldn't get rich but you'd soon know how to make a movie – one that played to the enthusiastic drive-in and grindhouse circuits. His companies were officially studios, unofficially they were film schools, and the list of graduates is stunning: Jack Nicholson, James Cameron, Peter Fonda, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Robert De Niro and hundreds of others.

A new documentary pays tribute to the prolific independent filmmaker, Roger Corman. Here’s Ryan’s review of the entertaining Corman’s World…

The importance of Roger Corman in American filmmaking cannot be underestimated. Without Corman, the New Hollywood style of filmmaking, which arguably began with Easy Rider in 1969, would never have happened. Directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and Joe Dante would never have been given their first chance at making movies. Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro and William Shatner may never have broken into stardom had Corman not given them roles in his films.

For much of the Us filmmaking establishment, Corman is ‘King of the Bs’ – a director and producer of low-budget trash. But what filmmaker Alex Stapleton’s documentary Corman’s World demonstrates is that, as cheap and swiftly made as Corman’s movies are, they’re varied, imaginative, and contrary to common assumptions,...

The UK’s favorite horror festival visits its second home at the Glasgow Film Festival for the 7th year with its biggest lineup ever. From Friday, February 24th, to Saturday, February 25th, Film4 FrightFest will be screening 11 new must-see genre titles, 10 of which are UK premieres.

From the Press Release:

Expect to be taken on a roller-coaster ride from hell with this ghoulish global celluloid feast featuring Argentinean demons, flesh-hungry Russian zombies, mutant cannibals, a Chinese-speaking alien, Asia’s deadliest killers, a Croatian hit-man, Pinocchio obsessed psychos, and Jack Nicholson like you’ve never seen him before.

With guest directors and filmmakers from all over world (to be announced shortly), surprises on screen and off, and our unique community feeling, FrightFest at the Gff has now become a must-attend occasion on the horror fantasy fan's calendar.

Alan Jones, FrightFest’s co-director said: "Film4 FrightFest is thrilled to be part of...

The UK’s favourite horror fantasy festival returns to its second home at the Glasgow Film Festival for the 7th year with its biggest line-up ever.

From Friday Feb 24 to Saturday Feb 25, Film4 FrightFest will be screening eleven new must-see genre titles. ten of which are UK premieres. So expect to be taken of the roller-coaster ride from hell with this ghoulish global celluloid feast, featuring Argentinean demons, flesh-hungry Russian zombies, mutant cannibals, a Chinese-speaking alien, Asia’s deadliest killers, a Croatian hit-man, Pinocchio obsessed psychos and Jack Nicholson like you’ve never seen him before.

With guest directors and filmmakers from all over world (to be announced shortly), surprises on screen and off, and our unique community feeling, FrightFest at the Gff has now become a must-attend occasion on the horror fantasy fan’s calendar.

Here is the full line-up

Fri 24

13:30 Corman’S World: Exploits Of A Hollywood...

My favourite horror film festival, FrightFest, have announced the line-up for next month’s Glasgow Ff, which takes place as part of the Glasgow Film Festival – with what looks to be the biggest line-up ever. Says Alan Jones, FrightFest’s co-director:

Film4 FrightFest is thrilled to be part of the Glasgow Film Festival for its seventh and biggest year. We’ll be showing eleven fantastic premieres, previews and special events to shock, thrill and amaze over two days – plus those must-meet guests from all corners of the genre. So, be part of the best community spirit in the country while watching the best fright stuff currently on offer. There couldn’t be a better way to delve into 2012 and ready yourselves for FrightFest the 13th in August

From Friday February 24th to Saturday February 25th, Film4 FrightFest will be screening Eleven new genre titles, ten of which are UK premieres...