Samuel Z. Arkoff, the maverick Hollywood producer responsible for than 500 low-budget cult movies, died of natural causes, aged 83 on Sunday Sept 16.

Arkoff, many of whose movies were hugely profitable, tapped into the youth culture long before the major studios recognised the lucrative demographic market.

Among his best-known titles were the Michael Caine starrer Dressed To Kill, The Amityville Horror and I Was a Teen-Age Werewolf.

Arkoff co-founded American International Pictures in 1954 with the late Jim Nicholson, finding early success with the release of The Fast And The Furious, a gritty action film directed by future B-movie king Roger Corman. The film, which cost a mere $60,000 grossed $250,000 domestically.

I Was a Teen-Age Werewolf, which was was shot in six days in 1957, cost $100,000 and took a domestic gross of $2m. The Amityville Horror, starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder, grossed $65 million domestically in 1979, making it the biggest independent film until Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles a full10 years later.

AIP also provided early opportunities for the likes of directors Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, Woody Allen, Ivan Reitman and Brian De Palma as well as actors Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda and Melanie Griffith.

Arkoff and Nicholson sold AIP in 1979. Largely retired for the last 20 years, he published his memoirs, 'Flying Through Hollywood by the Seat of My Pants', in 1992. Last September, he attended the premiere of It Conquered Hollywood: The Story of American International Pictures, a documentary narrated by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich.