- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAlan David Cohen
- Corey Allen earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UCLA in Theatre in 1954. While there, he received the department's Best Actor award and starred in the UCLA film, "A Time Out of War", which won the Academy Award & Cannes & Venice Film Festival for Best Short Film. Upon graduation, he appeared in approximately twenty plays in the Los Angeles area. Director Nicholas Ray spotted Allen and subsequently chose him for the role of "Buzz" in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). This led to featured roles in another dozen films such as Private Property (1960), Party Girl (1958), Darby's Rangers (1958) and The Chapman Report (1962). Allen also appeared in many leading television series including Perry Mason (1957) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). Meanwhile, he created, directed for and co-produced the Freeway Circuit Theatre which toured the Southwest for six seasons. Allen also directed numerous Equity productions in Los Angeles theatres. This led to a thirty year directorial career in television and film during which he directed three movies including Avalanche; television movies including the Emmy winning The Ann Jillian Story (1988); created a dozen pilots for television series including Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Simon & Simon (1981), Code Name: Foxfire (1985), Stone (1979) and Capitol (1982). He has earned two Directors Guild nominations for Best Direction in a television series, the Award for Cable Excellence for Best Direction of The Paper Chase (1978) and received an Emmy for Best Direction of a Hill Street Blues (1981). Throughout this career, Allen instructed acting, including three years at the Actors Workshop, and for the last nine years, conducted cold reading workshops at the Margie Haber Studio. This year, Allen was presented with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Columbia College-Holllywood for his work in helping to create their acting and directing curricula.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- Starting out as an actor in 1954, Corey Allen was often cast as a brash, arrogant young tough, most notably in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as the driver who got trapped in the car during the "chicken" race with James Dean and went over the cliff. He retired from acting in the 1960s, and turned to directing. Although he has directed several features, the vast majority of his work has been in episodic TV series and made-for-television movies.- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com
- His father was the legendary bookie and Las Vegas casino owner/manager/executive Carl Cohen (1913-86), best remembered for punching Frank Sinatra in the face at The Sands in 1967. A belligerent Sinatra got aggressive and was yelling threateningly at Cohen because he was denied casino credit--unaware of new casino rules just put into effect. The Sands was known as the "playpen" of the "Rat Pack" and Sinatra was a longtime Sands attraction at the time of the incident. Within a week Sinatra took his show to Caesar's Palace. Cohen later became a vice-president at both the Sands and MGM Grand hotels.
- Third cast member of the film Rebel Without a Cause (1955) to have died within the first six months of 2010. He was predeceased by cast mates Steffi Sidney and Dennis Hopper.
- Brother Stephen is a filmmaker.
- Father Carl Cohen was an associate of Cleveland's Mayfield Road Gang.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content