Larry Cohen's grandfather had been a minstrel show performer, donning blackface as a comic "end man."

Growing up in the Washington Heights section of New York City, Cohen was writing and drawing comics by the age of 8.

In his youth, Cohen worked as a joke writer and did standup comedy in New Jersey and the Catskills.

Cohen created the TV series Branded (1965-1966) and The Invaders (1967-1968), both informed by his memories of the Communist "witch hunts" of the 1950s.

Cohen's feature film debut as a director was Bone (1972), starring Yaphet Kotto.

Because Cohen had directed a black actor in Bone, producer Samuel Arkoff hired him to direct blaxploitation pictures for AIP.

Cohen had written the treatment for Black Caesar as a vehicle for Sammy Davis, Jr., but was cheated out of his fee by Davis' manager.

Hell Up in Harlem star Fred Williamson earned the nickname "The Hammer" as a karate chopping AFL/NFL defensive back for such teams as the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Oakland Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Playing in the very first Super Bowl in 1967, "The Hammer" was knocked unconscious in the fourth quarter.

Williamson's Hollywood career took off when he won a role as Diahann Carroll's boyfriend on the sitcom Julia (1969-1971).

Williamson directed the football game sequence for Robert Altman's M*A*S*H (1970), his first feature film.

Hell Up in Harlem villain Gerald Gordon had previously appeared in Larry Cohen's 1970 Off-Off Broadway stage play, Nature of the Crime, starring Tony Lo Bianco.

Gloria Hendry's lineage includes Seminole Indian, African, Creek Indian, Irish, and Chinese bloodlines.

Before she broke into films, Hendry worked as a secretary for the N.A.A.C.P. and was a Playboy bunny in New York.

After appearing in Black Caesar, Hendry was slated to star opposite Bernie Casey in Hit Man (1972) when she was cast as a Bond girl opposite Roger Moore in Live and Let Die (1973).

Tony King later enjoyed a working vacation abroad, in such popular Euro-cult movies as Antonio Margheriti's Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) and The Last Hunter (1980) and in Ruggero Deodato's Raiders of Atlantis (1983).

James Dixon has appeared in many films for Larry Cohen, from Black Caesar to Wicked Stepmother (1989) and appears in all three It's Alive films.

In an interview with writer Tony Williams for his book on Larry Cohen, Dixon stated, "Some days we'd shoot It's Alive in the morning and Hell Up in Harlem in the afternoon. I remember we used a location in North Hollywood, which was a little hospital off of Victory Boulevard. But it wasn't functioning as a hospital anymore. It operated as a drying-out place, an alcoholic recovery unit. We'd run right through the wards. All these people would be lying in bed with D.T.'s....we'd be running through shooting Hell Up in Harlem. I'd be in my New York police uniform with all these black guys chasing me or me chasing them. The drunks in their beds didn't know what the hell was going on, especially when, later on, I would be back, this time in my Lt. Perkins outfit, chasing the baby monster from It's Alive."

Margaret Avery shared a lesbian love scene with Whoopi Goldberg in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985).

D'Urville Martin appeared as Lionel Jefferson in two unaired pilots for the TV series All in the Family.

Hell Up in Harlem costars Gloria Hendry and Julius Harris also appeared together in Live and Let Die.

Composer Freddie Perren later penned the disco classic "I Will Survive."

Compiled by Richard Harland Smith

Sources:
Dark Visions: Conversations with the Masters of the Horror Film by Stanley Wiater
Larry Cohen interview by Andrea Juno and V. Vale, Re/Search: Incredibly Strange Films, 1986.
Larry Cohen biography by Elayne Chaplin, Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide
Flying Through Hollywood by the Seat of My Pants by Sam Arkoff with Richard Trubo
Back Story 4: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1970s and 1980s by Patrick McGilligan
That's Blaxploitation: Roots of the Badass 'Tude by Darius James
Larry Cohen: The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker by Tony Williams
Fred Williamson interview by Brett McCormick, Psychotronic Video No. 10, 1991.
Fred Williamson interview by Steve Ryfle, Shock Cinema No. 15, 1999.
Larry Cohen interview by Maitland McDonagh, Psychotronic Video No. 11, 1991.
Gloria Hendry interview, CommanderBond.net
Gloria Hendry interview by Jessie Lilley, Worldly Remains No. 1, 2000
Internet Movie Database