Born on April 5, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan, Roger Corman was educated at Beverly Hills High School and holds a degree in engineering from Stanford University.

Corman's first job in show business was as a gofer on the 20th Century Fox lot.

When Corman sold his first script to Allied Artists, he insisted on -and got- an associate producer credit.

Expected to follow his brothers into diplomatic service, William Henry Pratt instead wished to be an actor, and immigrated to Canada from England, where he changed his name to Boris Karloff.

On his mother's side, Boris Karloff is related to Anna Leonowens, whose memoirs inspired the Broadway musical The King and I.

Abandoned by his father after his birth and placed in the custody of his grandparents, Jack Nicholson grew up believing that his grandmother was his mother and that his true mother was his older sister.

Prior to appearing in The Terror, Sandra Knight was a good girl turned temporary ghoul in Richard Cunha's Frankenstein's Daughter (1958) and played a small role in Roger Corman's Tower of London (1962).

Harry Dean Stanton was best man to Jack Nicholson at his June 17, 1962 wedding to Sandra Knight, whose maid of honor was Millie Perkins.

In an attempt to ease tensions during their strained six-year marriage, Nicholson and Knight experimented with LSD under the supervision of a psychiatrist. During one five-hour session, Knight looked at Nicholson and saw a demon.

Stanley Kubrick used Nicholson's stories of his estrangement and breakup with Knight for one of Nicholson's mad scenes in The Shining (1980).

Uncredited co-directors Monte Hellman and Francis Ford Coppola had directed the Corman-produced Beast from Haunted Cave (1959) and Dementia 13 (1963) respectively.

Monte Hellman was once married to Barboura Morris, who starred in Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood (1959) with Dick Miller.

Uncredited co-director Jack Hill would direct Boris Karloff in the aging actor's final feature film assignments.

Assistant editor Donald Shebib was a native of Toronto and would later write and direct the critically acclaimed Canadian feature Goin' Down the Road (1970).

Dick Miller is a direct descendant of Gustav von Bluecher, a Prussian soldier for whom Frederick the Great designed the Iron Cross medal of honor.

Dick Miller met his wife, Elaine Halpern, a registered nurse, at Hollywood's famous Schwab's Drug Store on Sunset Boulevard.

Miller and costar Jonathan Haze were briefly writing partners who hoped to spin their soldier characters from Invasion of the Star Creatures (1963) into a film of their own.

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith

Sources:

Roger Corman biography, Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide, by Wheeler Winston Dixon

"Unsung Heroes of the Horrors: Dick Miller," by Barry Brown, www.barrybrown.info

Karloff: The Life of Boris Karloff by Peter Underwood

Dear Boris: The Life of William Henry Pratt, a.k.a. Boris Karloff by Cynthia Lindsay

Heroes of the Horrors by Calvin Beck

Jack Nicholson: The Life and Times of an Actor on the Edge by Peter Thompson

Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson by Patrick McGilligan

Internet Movie Database