Corey Allen
| Corey Allen | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Alan Cohen June 29, 1934 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | June 27, 2010 (aged 75) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, director, producer, writer |
| Years active | 1954–2010 |
| Children | 1 |
Corey Allen (June 29, 1934 – June 27, 2010) was an American film and television director, writer, producer, and actor. He began his career as an actor but eventually became a television director. He may be best known for playing the character Buzz Gunderson in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
Allen was born Alan Cohen in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 29, 1934. He was the son of Carl and Fran Cohen; his father was an illegal bookie and gambling operator for the Mayfield Road Mob in Cleveland, and later became an important gambling executive at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alan attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his start in acting and was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1954.
Allen was best known for his role as gang leader Buzz Gunderson in Nicholas Ray's 1955 film Rebel Without A Cause. Starring in the film was James Dean, who played Jim Stark, a disaffected teenager who has moved to Los Angeles to start a new life, only to find more problems in his new home. After a show at the Griffith Observatory, Buzz challenges Jim to a knife fight, which Stark wins by subduing Buzz with his switchblade. During the filming of the knife fight, both Allen and Dean, aficionados of method acting, used real knives and Dean was injured when Allen lunged at him with his knife. The gang challenges Jim to a chickie run, in which two stolen cars will be raced towards a cliff and the winner will be the last one to jump out. Before the two are about to embark on their death race, Buzz and Jim stand at the edge of the cliff, looking down at the fall they might face if they remained in their cars to the end. As Jim questions why they are going ahead with this race, Buzz responds "You got to do something, don't you". Allen would later recall that his classic line was "the underlying question of each generation. Here we are: What do we do?". As the cars are heading to the cliff, Buzz attempts to jump out but is unable to escape when his leather jacket gets caught on the car door handle and is killed in the crash at the beach below.
...
Wikipedia