Richard Donner was a filmmaker who directed popular movies including “Superman,” “The Goonies,” and the “Lethal Weapon” series.
- Died: July 5, 2021 (Who else died on July 5?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 91.
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Directing blockbusters
After a brief acting career, Donner began directing TV episodes and made his film directing debut with 1961’s “X-15.” His first big success was with “The Omen” (1976), the classic horror movie about the Antichrist as a boy. He followed “The Omen” with “Superman” (1978), reviving the superhero genre with a movie popular with audiences and critics. After tensions arose while he was directing “Superman II” (1980), Donner was fired from the film and went uncredited in the theatrical release. But he rebounded, directing “The Toy” in 1982, as the cult classic “The Goonies” and the fantasy film “Ladyhawke” in 1985.
With “Lethal Weapon” in 1987, Donner presented a likeable buddy cop film that he said succeeded because its scenes of violence weren’t bloody: “Sure, there were a lot of deaths, but they died like they died in westerns,” he told the New York Times in an interview. “They were shot with bullets; they weren’t dismembered.” He went on to direct three sequels to “Lethal Weapon.” Donner’s other films included “Scrooged” (1988), “Conspiracy Theory” (1997), and his final film, “16 Blocks” (2006).
Donner on making “The Goonies”
“That film gave me the opportunity to work with a type of actor I had never had the opportunity to work with before, and that was kids. I learned more from those kids than I think I’ve ever learned from anyone in the business. [T]here was all this natural instinct, untainted and uncontaminated, and the things that came out of them were so pure and so honest and so in character.” —from a 2006 interview for Empire
Tributes to Richard Donner
Full obituary: The New York Times
