by Conan Simmons – July 8, 2021 – 8:42 pm
Never nominated for an Oscar or any other top Hollywood award, Richard Donner directed many of the top films in various genres in a career that spanned 50 years. Born in New York City on April 24, 1930, Richard Donner passed away earlier this week on July 5, aged 91.
Richard Donner began his career on television directing an episode of of the western series ‘Zane Grey Theatre’ quickly moving on to direct several episodes of ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’ starring Steve McQueen and the drama series ‘The Loretta Young Show’. After directing an episode of ‘Wagon Train’ Donner made his first feature film, the science fact drama ‘X-15’ starring Charles Bronson in 1961. He continued in television for the remainder of the 1960’s with stints directing westerns ‘The Rifleman’ and ‘Have Gun Will Travel’, war shows ‘Combat!’ and ’12 O’Clock High’, horror in ‘The Twilight Zone’, spy spoofs ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ and ‘Get Smart’, the sitcom ‘Gilligan’s Island’, crime dramas ‘Perry Mason’, ‘The F.B.I.’ and ‘The Fugitive’, science fiction in ‘The Wild Wild West’, and even the Saturday morning cartoon series ‘The Banana Splits’.
Donner returned to directing for the silver screen in 1968 with the Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford film ‘Salt and Pepper’ and again in 1970 with the Charles Bronson movie ‘The London Affair’. For the next five years Donner continued in television directing several tv movies and episodes for hit crime series like ‘Ironside’, ‘Cannon’, ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ and ‘Kojak’.
In 1976 Richard Donner made his mark with one of the most successful horror films of the decade, ‘The Omen’ starring Hollywood legend Gregory Peck. The success of that film was followed up the next year with Donner bringing comic book superheroes to respected prominence on the big screen in ‘Superman’ starring Christopher Reeve and Marlon Brando. Prior to this film the genre of comic book superheroes were nothing more than a joke to those in Hollywood, unlike in Europe were comic book movies were given serious consideration for big screen adaptations by the 1960’s. ‘Superman’ earned three Academy Award nominations, for Music, Sound, and Film Editing while winning only a Special Achievement award.
Taking the helm for the inevitable sequel a dispute between Richard Donner and the producers led to Donner being fired from ‘Superman 2’ and being replaced by Richard Lester, the director of hit Beatles film ‘A Hard Days Night’.
Moving into a producer role himself as a result of the dispute Donner stayed directing feature films throughout the 1980’s starting with the 1982 Richard Pryor comedy, ‘The Toy’. In 1985 Donner made one of the top sword and sorcery fantasy films, ‘Ladyhawke’ starring Mathew Broderick, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer. That same year he directed the hugely popular children’s adventure ‘The Goonies’ starring Sean Astin, Corey Feldman and Josh Brolin.
Just before he directed the 1988 Christmas comedy ‘Scrooged’ starring Bill Murray, Richard Donner began the iconic buddy-cop franchise ‘Lethal Weapon’ starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Donner went on to direct three sequels to his successful 1987 action flick.
Donner didn’t abandon television entirely, he did direct as well as produce several episodes for one of HBO’s early hit series ‘Tales from the Crypt’.
From the 1990’s to the 2000’s, Donner directed several more top Hollywood movies all firmly with action roots, from the comedic western ‘Maverick’ starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner, to ‘Assassins’ starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas, to 1997’s Mel Gibson/Julia Roberts team-up ‘Conspiracy Theory’. Donner’s final two films as a director were the 2003 sci-fi adventure ‘Timeline’ starring Gerard Butler with Paul Walker and the 2006 actioner ’16 Blocks’ starring Bruce Willis and Mos Def.
As an executive producer Richard Donner was just as prolific getting films to the screen from 1987’s horror hit ‘The Lost Boys’ to the children’s film franchise ‘Free Willy’ in 1993 along with two sequels. Executive producing the two ‘Tales from the Crypt’ theatrical features ‘Demon Knight’ and ‘Bordello of Blood’, Donner also backed the Oliver Stone sports drama ‘Any Given Sunday’ in 1999.
While ‘Superman’ and most of ‘Superman 2’ were his only directorial contribution to the genre of comic book superheroes on film, Richard Donner did help usher in the current wave of superhero movies that dominate Hollywood. In 2000, Donner executive produced ‘X-Men’ with his wife, Lauren Shuler Donner as producer and, just starting out his career in producing superhero extravaganza’s, Kevin Feige who would go on to produce all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that are in theaters now. Richard Donner also executive produced the first of the Hugh Jackman ‘X-Men’ spinoff trilogy, ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ in 2009 which also saw the first incarnation of Ryan Reynolds as the mutant Deadpool.
Richard Donner’s impact on film and television across a multitude of genres is a legacy rarely rivaled.