Larry Cohen
Birthday:
15 July 1941, Kingston, New York, USA
Birth Name:
Lawrence G. Cohen
Height:
179 cm
Larry Cohen was born July 15, 1941, in Kingston, New York, a small town north of New York City. At a young age, his family moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and he eventually majored in film at the historic City College of New York, graduating in 1963. An independent maverick who got his start in studio-based television, he is best known...
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Larry Cohen was born July 15, 1941, in Kingston, New York, a small town north of New York City. At a young age, his family moved to the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and he eventually majored in film at the historic City College of New York, graduating in 1963. An independent maverick who got his start in studio-based television, he is best known for inventive low-budget horror films that combine scathing social commentary with the requisite scares and occasional laughs. He was also a major player in the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Later in his career, he became a sought-after screenplay writer. Although not very prolific in his screen writing, these works still combine provocative social commentary--but with more conventional storytelling. Show less «
Life has been good to me. I keep making pictures. Every year I make something. As long as I keep working, I have nothing to complain about. ...Show more »
Life has been good to me. I keep making pictures. Every year I make something. As long as I keep working, I have nothing to complain about. And the films I've made have all had some point to them. Otherwise, I wouldn't have felt they were worth doing. You have to have some direction in which you're headed and a destination which you have to arrive at by the end of the film, so that you feel it was a satisfactory trip. Some kind of personal statement has to be made. Show less «
Sometimes the scenes that really make a movie work are the little scenes that have nothing to do with advancing the action, but just add a l...Show more »
Sometimes the scenes that really make a movie work are the little scenes that have nothing to do with advancing the action, but just add a little something. Show less «
[on how he came up with the idea of the aliens' signature extended pinky finger on his series The Invaders (1967)] The extended pinky used t...Show more »
[on how he came up with the idea of the aliens' signature extended pinky finger on his series The Invaders (1967)] The extended pinky used to be a symbol of effeminacy . . . you know, the effete [person] holding a glass of champagne with the pinky extended? When this show was done back in the '60s, the homosexual community was kind of a submerged, invisible community. People were living secret lives. I thought, here are these aliens living amongst society, keeping their true identities secret, their true selves secret, and this is funny because the pinky kind of symbolizes homosexuality in some way, and nobody will get the gag, but I'll put it in there anyway. Show less «
Some kids were great playing baseball; other kids were great at playing the piano; some kids were terrific at math. Writing was just somethi...Show more »
Some kids were great playing baseball; other kids were great at playing the piano; some kids were terrific at math. Writing was just something that came naturally. Show less «
Larry Cohen's Photos
