Larry Cohen, director of cult horror classics such as Its Alive and God Told Me To, has died aged 77.
The filmmaker died on Saturday night in Los Angeles surrounded by his loved ones, his publicist confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Cohen was known for an assortment of horror, science fiction, and blaxploitation films over his career, which began writing in the 1960s writing for detective shows like The Fugitive and The Defenders.
He directed his first film Bone in 1972, and went onto helm Its Alive, The Stuff, Hell Up In Harlem, Black Caesar, and A Return To Salems Lot.
After helming his last film Original Gangsters in 1996, he went onto to become a screenwriter on a number of films, including Phone Booth starring Colin Farrell, Cellular and Captivity.
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Cohen was also the subject of his own documentary in 2018s King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen by Steve Mitchell, which featured JJ Abrams, Martin Scorsese, John Landis and more sharing stories about the director.
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In 1988, Cohen was honoured with the George Pal Memorial Award by the Academy Of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.
He is survived by his second wife Cynthia Costas Cohen.
A number of directors have since paid tribute to Cohen, including Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright, who wrote: Many people say theyve made “independent” films (many financed by majors) but Larry Cohen truly was an independent freewheeling movie legend.
