Director of 'Superman,' 'Goonies’
Richard Donner, the tough, singleminded but playful film director who made Christopher Reeve’s Superman fly, Mel Gibson’s deranged detective lethal and the young stars of “The Goonies” pirateadorable, died on Monday. He was 91.
His production company and his wife and producing partner, Lauren Shuler Donner, confirmed the death with Hollywood trade publications. They did not say where he died or give the cause.
Donner first received headline attention with “The Omen” (1976), about a coldeyed little boy who is secretly the Antichrist.
But he was in his late 40s when he made his first blockbuster, “Superman,” reviving a comicbook hero who hadn’t been seen onscreen since the 1950s television series “Adventures of Superman.” The film opened in 1978, introducing Reeve, a relative unknown at the time, as the Man of Steel and some stateoftheart special effects.
That megahit was followed by “Inside Moves” (1980), a drama about a man crippled in a failed suicide attempt; “The Toy” (1982), with Richard Pryor, whose character finds himself hired to be the plaything of a spoiled rich child;
“The Goonies” (1985), about misfit children on a treasure hunt; the first of four “Lethal Weapon” movies (also 1987), starring Gibson and Danny Glover; and “Scrooged” (1988), an irreverent comic take on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” starring Bill Murray.
Donner always said he had been hired for “Goonies” because Steven Spielberg, who produced the movie, had told him, “You’re a bigger kid than I am.”
In a statement Monday, Spielberg said: “Dick had such a powerful command of his movies, and was so gifted across so many genres. Being in his
circle was akin to hanging out with your favorite coach, smartest professor, fiercest motivator, most endearing friend, staunchest ally, and — of course — the greatest Goonie of all. He was all kid. All heart. All the time.”
Richard Donald Schwartzberg was born on April 24, 1930, in the Bronx, N.Y., the younger of two children of Fred and Hattie (Horowitz) Schwartzberg. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant who worked in his father’s furniture business; his mother, a daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants, worked as a secretary before
having children.
Donner took his stage name from the infamous Donner Pass massacre — observing its centennial at the time — and because Donner sounded like his middle name.
Asked in a Archive of American Television interview how he wanted to be remembered, he was unassuming. “As a good guy who lived a long life and had a good time and always had that lady behind him pushing him,” he said. His only boast: “I’m pretty good at meeting a schedule and a budget.”