Richard Donner

Richard Donner
Donner in 1979
Born	Richard Donald Schwartzberg (1930-04-24)April 24, 1930 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	July 5, 2021(2021-07-05) (aged 91) West Hollywood, California, U.S.
Alma mater	New York University
Occupations	Film director producer
Years active	1957–2021
Notable work	The Omen Superman The Goonies Lethal Weapon Scrooged
Spouse	Lauren Shuler ​ (m. 1985)​

Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American film director and producer. Described as "one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters", Donner directed some of the most financially-successful films of the 1970s and 1980s. His 50-year career crossed genres and influenced trends among filmmakers across the world.

Donner began his career in 1957 as a television director. In the 1960s, he directed episodes of the series The Rifleman, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, The Twilight Zone, The Banana Splits, and many others. Donner made his film debut with the low-budget aviation drama X-15 in 1961, but had his critical and commercial breakthrough with the horror film The Omen in 1976. He directed the landmark superhero film Superman in 1978, which provided an inspiration for the fantasy film genre to eventually gain artistic respectability and commercial dominance. Donner later went on to direct films in the 1980s such as The Goonies and Scrooged, while reinvigorating the buddy cop film genre with the Lethal Weapon series.

Donner and his wife, Lauren, owned a production company, The Donners' Company, which is most successful for producing the Free Willy and X-Men film franchises. Donner also produced Tales from the Crypt and co-wrote several comic books for Superman publisher DC Comics. In 2000, Donner received the President's Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.

Early years

Richard Donald Schwartzberg was born in the Bronx, New York City, to Russian Jewish parents, Hattie (Horowitz) and Fred Schwartzberg. His father owned a small furniture-manufacturing business and his mother was a stay at home mother. He had a sister, Joan. His grandfather owned a movie theatre in Brooklyn, which had an early influence on his perception of film.

After graduating from high school, Donner served in the U.S. Navy, becoming an aerial photographer. He briefly attended New York University but left to pursue a career in acting, relocating to Los Angeles and adopting the stage name "Richard Donner".

Television

Initially, Donner wanted to develop a career as an actor. He gained a bit part in a television program directed by Martin Ritt, who encouraged Donner to become a director instead. Ritt hired Donner as his assistant. Later, Donner was on the staff of Desilu, where he directed commercials. He made the transition into television dramas in the late 1950s, directing some episodes of the Steve McQueen western serial Wanted Dead or Alive and the Chuck Connors western The Rifleman.

During his early career as a director he worked on over twenty-five television series, including Have Gun – Will Travel, The Fugitive, Combat!, Get Smart, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Gilligan's Island, Kojak, and The Twilight Zone (such as the episodes "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" starring William Shatner, The Jeopardy Room starring Martin Landau and "From Agnes—With Love" starring Wally Cox), as well as the serial Danger Island from the children's program The Banana Splits.

In the 1990s, Donner served as executive producer of the HBO anthology horror series Tales from the Crypt, based on the EC Comics series of the same name. He directed three episodes during its run ("Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone", "The Ventriloquist's Dummy", "Showdown"), and also produced three feature film spinoffs; Demon Knight, Bordello of Blood, and Ritual.

Films

Donner's first feature film was X-15 (1961), which starred David McLean, Charles Bronson, and Mary Tyler Moore. Seven years passed before he directed his next, Salt and Pepper (1968), with Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford. His breakthrough film was The Omen (1976). A supernatural horror made in the wake of the success of The Exorcist, the film stars Gregory Peck, David Warner, and Lee Remick. It was the fifth-highest-grossing film of 1976.

Superman (1978)

In 1978, Donner directed Superman: The Movie, starring Christopher Reeve in the title role. Donner approached the film with the concept of creating verisimilitude, an intuitive feeling evoked in the audience that makes the fantasy story feel real within the story's context. It was a hit worldwide, projecting Reeve to international fame. The film co-starred Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Marlon Brando as Jor-El, and Gene Hackman as archvillain Lex Luthor. At the box office, it grossed $134 million domestically.

Principal photography of Superman included filming of its first sequel, Superman II. Donner filmed most of Superman II with the expectation he would complete the sequel after the release of Superman. Despite the first film's success, Donner was fired from Superman II. Throughout the filming of both Superman films, Donner had a difficult relationship with executive producers Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind and producer Pierre Spengler. The Salkinds refused Donner's demand that Spengler be fired; instead, the Salkinds replaced Donner as director of Superman II with Richard Lester, who had worked with the Salkinds on The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers and as an uncredited producer on Superman. Following Donner's dismissal, Marlon Brando's scenes were removed from Superman II and much of the film was re-shot under Lester's direction. Gene Hackman refused to return for re-shoots; consequently, all the Lex Luthor scenes that appear in Superman II were filmed by Donner, although Donner refused to be credited.

Rotten Tomatoes' summary states that "Superman II meets, if not exceeds, the standard set by its predecessor." Donner continued to promote the view that his contribution was superior to the rest of the series. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was released on November 28, 2006, the same date as the DVD release of the summer film Superman Returns. This version of the film features the re-insertion of Marlon Brando's scenes as Jor-El and relies on a minimum of footage shot by Richard Lester.

1980s and 1990s

Donner directed mixed commercial flops (Inside Moves, Radio Flyer) and successes (The Goonies, the Lethal Weapon series, Scrooged, and Conspiracy Theory).

Lethal Weapon (1987–1998)

Donner's next blockbuster film was the action comedy Lethal Weapon, written by Shane Black. It starred Mel Gibson as a widowed narcotics detective with a suicidal bent "who breaks every rule for the sheer joy of it". It co-starred Danny Glover as a calm homicide detective with a loving family and consideration for retirement. The film's action sequences were considered "truly spectacular" and made the film one of the year's biggest hits.

Donner directed six films starring Mel Gibson in total, creating a Lethal Weapon franchise with three sequels; the last of these was Lethal Weapon 4, released in 1998. In an interview in 2000, Gibson described his impressions of Donner:

Uncle Dick. He's a great guy, just terrific. Extremely professional. He's an old veteran and has an understanding of film that is the culmination of years of experience. He's got his technical stuff down, his vision down. No matter what you say about Dick, it underrates him. He really loves what he's doing, loves working with actors, and he allows you freedom to explore all kinds of areas. "All right, kid," he'll say, and slap you on the back and let you try something, because even he doesn't know sometimes. He's just an extremely charming, talented, great fuckin' guy. I love him.

X-Men

Donner became the executive producer for the 2000 Marvel Comics film X-Men, then also an executive producer for the 2009 X-Men prequel, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In addition, Donner's wife has produced all of the films in the X-Men film series under their Donners' Company brand.

On October 16, 2008, Donner and Lauren Shuler Donner received stars in a double ceremony on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their achievements in motion pictures, located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard.

Unrealized projects

Donner was the first choice to direct the "unofficial" James Bond film Never Say Never Again, but turned it down after he decided he disliked Lorenzo Semple Jr.'s script. He would have served as director of Jurassic Park had Columbia/TriStar won the bidding war for the screen rights against other studios. Donner was also considered as director for The Lost Boys, The Last Boy Scout, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Dave, Forever Young, and The Sandlot. In 2001, Donner claimed he planned to direct a sequel to The Goonies after Timeline, and he planned to direct the fifth and final Lethal Weapon film before his death in 2021.

Books

• Action Comics (co-writer with Geoff Johns)
• Last Son and Escape from Bizarro World (2009)
• You're the Director... You Figure It Out: The Life and Films of Richard Donner (2010)

Comic books

Donner at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con

One of Donner's assistants in the late 1990s was comic book writer Geoff Johns. In October 2006, Donner, Johns, and artist Adam Kubert became the new creative team on Action Comics, the publisher's most time honored publication and one of DC Comics' two main Superman titles. Together, Johns and Donner collaborated on the stories Last Son and Escape from Bizarro World, both of which have been released in collected book form. Donner and Johns also co-wrote a story for Action Comics #1000, released in April 2018.

Biography

In 2010, Donner's authorized biography titled You're the Director... You Figure It Out: The Life and Films of Richard Donner by James Christie was published by BearManor Media. The book features a foreword by Mel Gibson.

Script Magazine described the book as an "engaging portrait of a warm-hearted (if occasionally gruff) man who can justly be considered the modern equivalent of Victor Fleming and Michael Curtiz—a highly talented, professional director of motion pictures who has thrived in the studio system and made some pretty good pictures to boot."

The Directors Guild of America called the book "a compelling study of an ebullient, ballsy risk-taker who was a director even before he was aware of it" that "ably captures Donner's joy in doing a job he loves."

Personal life and death

Donner married film producer Lauren Shuler on November 27, 1985. The two merged their respective production companies to create Shuler-Donner Productions (now The Donners' Company) the same year. Donner and Shuler remained together until the former's death.

Donner was a cousin of actor Steve Kahan, who played a policeman tracking Otis in Superman: The Movie, and played Captain Ed Murphy in the Lethal Weapon film franchise. Donner also cast Kahan in some of his other films.

Donner died on July 5, 2021, at his West Hollywood, California home, at the age of 91. The cause of death was heart failure with atherosclerosis as an underlying cause.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Notes
1961	X-15	Yes	No
1968	Salt and Pepper	Yes	No
1970	Lola	Yes	No
1976	The Omen	Yes	No
1978	Superman	Yes	No
1980	Superman II	Uncredited	No	Replaced as director by Richard Lester during principal photography Lester received sole directorial credit
	Inside Moves	Yes	No
1982	The Toy	Yes	No
1985	Ladyhawke	Yes	Yes
	The Goonies	Yes	Yes
1987	Lethal Weapon	Yes	Yes
1988	Scrooged	Yes	Yes
1989	Lethal Weapon 2	Yes	Yes
1992	Radio Flyer	Yes	No	Replaced David Mickey Evans
	Lethal Weapon 3	Yes	Yes
1994	Maverick	Yes	Yes
1995	Assassins	Yes	Yes
1997	Conspiracy Theory	Yes	Yes
1998	Lethal Weapon 4	Yes	Yes
2002	Tales from the Crypt: Ritual	No	Yes	Directed by Avi Nesher
2003	Timeline	Yes	Yes
2006	16 Blocks	Yes	No
	Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut	Yes	No	Director's cut of Superman II

Executive producer

• Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)
• The Lost Boys (1987)
• Delirious (1991)
• Free Willy (1993)
• Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995)
• Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
• Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood (1996)
• Free Willy 3: The Rescue (1997)
• Any Given Sunday (1999)
• X-Men (2000)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1957	Men of Annapolis	Wrote 4 episodes (only screenwriting credit in career)
1960	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre	1 episode
	The DuPont Show with June Allyson
1960–1961	Wanted Dead or Alive	6 episodes
1961	Letter to Loretta	5 episodes
	Route 66	1 episode
	The Tall Man	2 episodes
	Wagon Train	1 episode
1961–1962	Have Gun – Will Travel	5 episodes
1962	The Detectives	1 episode
	The Rifleman	7 episodes
1962–63	Sam Benedict	6 episodes
1963	The Eleventh Hour	2 episodes
	Combat!	1 episode
	The Nurses
1963–1964	The Lieutenant	2 episodes
	The Twilight Zone	6 episodes
	Mr. Novak	7 episodes
1964	The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters	1 episode
	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	4 episodes
1964–1965	Gilligan's Island	3 episodes
	Perry Mason
1965	Twelve O'Clock High	4 episodes
	Get Smart	2 episodes
1966	The F.B.I.	1 episode
	The Fugitive	2 episodes
	It's About Time	1 episode
	Jericho
	The Wild Wild West	3 episodes
	The Felony Squad
1968–1969	The Banana Splits Adventure Hour	6 episodes
1971	The Interns	1 episode
	Sarge
	Bearcats!	2 episodes
1971–1972	Cade's County	3 episodes
1971–1973	Cannon	4 episodes
1972	The Sixth Sense	1 episode
	Ghost Story
	Banyon
	Ironside
	The Bold Ones: The New Doctors	3 episodes
1973–1974	Kojak
1974	The Streets of San Francisco	2 episodes
	Sons and Daughters	3 episodes
	Lucas Tanner	1 episode
	Petrocelli
1975	Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic	Television film
	Bronk	2 episodes
1989–1992	Tales from the Crypt	3 episodes Also executive producer Nominated – CableACE Award for Best Dramatic Series
1992	Two-Fisted Tales	Television film Segment: "Showdown"
1993–1994	Tales from the Cryptkeeper	Executive producer
1996–1997	Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House
1997	Perversions of Science
1999	Made Men	Producer Television film

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
1979	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films	Best Director	Superman	Nominated
	World Science Fiction Society	Best Dramatic Presentation		Won
1986			Ladyhawke	Nominated
1993	National Cable Television Association	Best Dramatic Series	Tales from the Crypt	Nominated
1994				Nominated
1995				Nominated
1997	National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences	Outstanding Game Show	Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House	Nominated
2000	Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films	President's Award	—	Won
	Hollywood Film Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Directing	—	Won
2002	Director's View Film Festival	Joseph L. Mankiewicz Excellence in Filmmaking Award	—	Won
2006	International Press Academy	Nikola Tesla Satellite Award	—	Won
2007	Casting Society of America	Career Achievement Award	—	Won
2008	Ojai Film Festival	Lifetime Achievement Award	—	Won
2009	American Cinema Editors	Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award	—	Won

External links

• Richard Donner at IMDb
• Archive of American Television interview, 2006
• Richard Donner discography at Discogs