He made movie audiences believe a man could fly and that an innocent-looking child could be the spawn of Satan. Famed film and TV director-producer Richard Donner has died at 91. No cause of death has been announced.
Richard Donald Schwartzberg was born in the Bronx to Hattie and Fred Schwartzberg in 1927. His father owned a small furniture manufacturing business.
Donner started his career as an actor. He got his first taste with a bit role for director Martin Ritt. Donner says Ritt is the one who encouraged him to direct after he was hired as an assistant.
Donner then moved into directing commercials in the late 1950’s. He transitioned into TV, directing episodes of Twilight Zone, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, The Wild Wild West, Gilligan’s Island, Kojak, Tales from the Crypt and Have Gun will Travel.
A highlight for Donner was directing Steve McQueen in Wanted: Dead or Alive and Chuck Conners in The Rifleman. Donner’s legacy on The Twilight Zone was the infamous episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet starring William Shatner.
After helming low-budget feature, X-15, Donner got his big break with the horror classic, The Omen. While many critics derided its violence and a cheap rip-off of The Exorcist, the film was an enormous box office hit, giving birth to four sequels, a remake, and TV series, and is regarded as a horror classic now.
That would lead Donner to launch Christopher Reeve’s career into the stratosphere as he would take on the role of Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton – 1978’s Superman: The Movie.
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Donner would also work on the sequel Superman II, but got into a fight with the film’s producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, and eventually left the project. Richard Lester replaced him, but much of Donner’s footage remained in the film, and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was released on DVD in 2006.
Other notable Donner features include Ladyhawke, The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, Scrooged and his last film, 16 Blocks.
Donner is survived by his wife, producing partner and producer of the X-Men franchise, Lauren Schuler Donner.
Donner’s films affected an entire generation of kids in the 70s and 80s and he is responsible for them entering the film industry as writers and directors.
