- Born Name: Samuel Z. Arkoff
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Samuel Z. Arkoff, Samuel Zachary Arkoff (June 12, 1918 – September 16, 2001) was an American producer of B movies.[edit] Life and careerBorn in Fort Dodge, Iowa to a Russian Jewish family, Arkoff first studied to be a lawyer. Along with business partner James H. Nicholson and producer-director Roger Corman, he produced eighteen films. In the 1950s, he and Nicholson founded the American Releasing Corporation, which later became known as American International Pictures and produced over 125 films before the companys demise in the 1980s. These films were mostly low-budget, with production completed in a few days, though nearly all of them became profitable.Arkoff is also credited with starting a few genres, such as the Beach Party and outlaw biker movies, and his company played a substantial part in bringing the horror film genre to a novel level with successes such as Blacula, I Was a Teenage Werewolf and The Thing with Two Heads. American International Pictures movies starred many established actors in principal or cameo roles, such as Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester and Vincent Price, as well as up-and-comers who later became household names, including Don Johnson, Nick Nolte, Diane Ladd, and most notably Jack Nicholson. A number of actors shunned or overlooked by most of Hollywood during the 1960s and 1970s, such as Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper, also found work in one or more of Arkoffs productions. Arkoffs most financially successful film was the 1979 adaptation of Jay Ansons book The Amityville Horror.Not long after American International Pictures went out of business, Arkoff founded Arkoff International Pictures.Arkoff began his career in Hollywood as a producer of The Hank McCune Show, a seminal sitcom produced in 1951. He innovated the TV laugh track rather than go to the expense of a studio audience.In 2000, Arkoff was featured alongside former collaborators including Roger Corman, Dick Miller and Peter Bogdanovich in the documentary SCHLOCK! The Secret History of American Movies, a film about the rise and fall of American exploitation cinema.Arkoff died in 2001, within weeks of his wifes own death.[edit] The ARKOFF formulaDuring a 1980s television talk show appearance, Arkoff related his ARKOFF Formula for a successful, memorable movie. This states that a successful low-budget movie should include:Action (exciting, entertaining drama)Revolution (novel or controversial themes and ideas)Killing (a modicum of violence)Oratory (notable dialogue and speeches)Fantasy (acted-out fantasies common to the audience)Fornication (sex appeal, for young adults)[edit] External linksArticle about Samuel Arkoff on the Horror-Wood WebzineSamuel Z. Arkoff at the Internet Movie DatabaseSamuel Z. Arkoff at Find a GravePersondataNameArkoff, SamuelAlternative namesShort descriptionDate of birthJune 12, 1918Place of birthFort Dodge, Iowa, United StatesDate of deathSeptember 16, 2001Place of deathBurbank, California, United StatesThis article about an American film producer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · d · eRetrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Z._ArkoffCategories: 1918 births | 2001 deaths | People from Fort Dodge, Iowa | American Jews | Businesspeople from Iowa | American people of Russian-Jewish descent | American film producers | American film producer stubsHidden categories: Articles with hCardsPersonal toolsLog in / create accountNamespacesArticleDiscussionVariantsViewsReadEditView historyActionsSearchNavigationMain pageContentsFeatured contentCurrent eventsRandom articleDonate to WikipediaInteractionHelpAbout WikipediaCommunity portalRecent changesContact WikipediaToolboxWhat links hereRelated changesUpload fileSpecial pagesPermanent linkCite this pagePrint/exportCreate a bookDownload as PDFPrintable versionLanguagesDeutschFrançais This page was last modified on 18 February 2011 at 09:43.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;additional terms may apply.See Terms of Use for details.Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.Contact usPrivacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersif ( window.mediaWiki ) {mediaWiki.config.set({wgCanonicalNamespace: , wgCanonicalSpecialPageName: false, wgNamespaceNumber: 0, wgPageName: Samuel_Z._Arkoff, wgTitle: Samuel Z. 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