Richard Donner is an American film director, comic book writer and film
producer. After directing the horror film The Omen, Donner became famous for
the hailed creation of the first modern superhero film, Superman, starring
Christopher Reeve. Donner later went on to direct such
films as The Goonies and Scrooged, while reinvigorating the buddy film genre with
Lethal Weapon and its sequels. He and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner,
own the production company The Donners' Company, which is most well known for
producing the X-Men film series. In 2000, he received the President's Award
from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Film historian
Michael Barson writes that Donner had "emerged as one of Hollywood's most
reliable makers of action blockbusters". Early years
Donner was born Richard Donald Schwartzberg in the Bronx to Jewish
parents, Hattie and Fred Schwartzberg. His father owned a small furniture
manufacturing business. He has a sister, Joan. Donner started his career with
hopes of acting but quickly moved into directing commercials and making
business films. He moved into television in the late 1950s, directing some
episodes of the Steve McQueen western serial Wanted: Dead or Alive and the
Chuck Connors western The Rifleman. Television
In his early career as a director he worked on TV commercials and 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, Tales from the Crypt and The Twilight Zone, as well as
the serial Danger Island from the children's program The Banana Splits.
Films Donner directed his first feature film
in 1961, X-15, which starred Charles Bronson and Mary Tyler Moore. It was not
until seven years later, however, that he directed his next film, Salt and
Pepper, with Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford. His break-through film was The
Omen. = Superman=
In 1978, Donner directed Superman: The Movie, starring Christopher Reeve. The
film became a hit worldwide, projecting both Reeve and Donner to international
fame. Co-stars included Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, Marlon Brando as Jor-El and
Gene Hackman as archvillain Lex Luthor. It succeeded at the box office, grossing
$134 million. After the first film's successful
release in December 1978, Donner was offered the director's role a second
time, but demanded that producer Pierre Spengler be removed from the project.
Rather than give in to this demand, the Salkinds replaced him with director
Richard Lester, who worked with them on The Three Musketeers and The Four
Musketeers and as an uncredited producer on Superman. 'Superman II meets, if not
exceeds, the standard set by its predecessor' according to Rotten
Tomatoes summary, while Donner continued to promote the view his contribution was
superior to the series. Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was released on
November 28, 2006 on the same date as the DVD release of the summer hit,
Superman Returns. = Post-Superman career=
Donner has mixed commercial flops and successes and Ladyhawke). In the case of
Superman, it was Donner who insisted the subject of the comic book superhero
should be treated "straight" rather than "camp", an approach that strongly
influenced later genre directors such as Tim Burton, Bryan Singer, and
Christopher Nolan, who have made successful superhero films of their own.
The influence of Superman can, to this day, be seen in superhero films outside
the Superman storyline, and even outside the DC Comics universe. Sam Raimi's
Spider-Man film is debatably one of the strongest examples of that influence. In
the early 1980s, Donner proposed to Warner Bros. a non-camp film version of
Batman, to star Mel Gibson. = Lethal Weapon=
Donner's next blockbuster film was 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 overall, creating a Lethal Weapon franchise with 3 sequels, the last one
being 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 f...in’ guy. I
love him." Richard Donner's cousin is actor Steve
Kahan, who played a policeman tracking Otis in Superman: The Movie, and played
Captain Ed Murphy in the Lethal Weapon movie franchise. Donner has cast Kahan
in some of his other films too. = X-Men=
He 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 and
producer on X-Men: Days of Future Past. In addition, Donner's wife has produced
all of the films in the X-Men film series under their Donners' Company
brand. Comic books
One of Donner's assistants in the late 1990s was comic book scribe 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.
Book release On November 10, 2010, Donner's
authorized biography 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 actor Mel Gibson.
Script Magazine described the book as an "engaging portrait of a warm-hearted 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."
Filmography X-15
Salt and Pepper Twinky
The Omen Superman
Superman II Inside Moves
The Toy The Goonies
Ladyhawke Lethal Weapon
Scrooged Lethal Weapon 2
Radio Flyer Lethal Weapon 3
Maverick Assassins
Conspiracy Theory Lethal Weapon 4
Timeline 16 Blocks
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut Bibliography
Action Comics Last Son and Escape from Bizarro World
You're the Director... You Figure It Out: The Life and Films of Richard
Donner References
External links Richard Donner at the Internet Movie
Database Archive of American Television interview