Washington, July 5 (EFE) – U.S. filmmaker Richard Donner, who directed the first Superman film (1978) and other iconic films like The Goonies (1985) and Lethal Weapon (1987), died Monday at the age of 91, his relatives said.
Donner’s widow, Lauren Schuler Donner, announced the death to the specialized publication Deadline, and the filmmaker’s production company confirmed the news to Variety magazine without revealing the cause or place of death.
Donner directed some of the most iconic films of the 1970s and 1980s, starting with the horror film The Omen (1976), in which he applied part of what he had learned working on the famous mystery TV series The Twilight Zone.
His biggest success came two years later with Superman, starring Christopher Reeve, which grossed more than $300 million at the worldwide box office, more than five times its $55 million budget.
“His ‘Superman’ is the archetype of today’s superhero movies. We will continue to strive to reach the bar he set then,” Marvel president Richard Feige said during a 2017 tribute to Donner organized by the Motion Picture Academy.
Also, the then president of DC Entertainment, Geoff Johns, defined Superman as “the best superhero movie in history,” and praised Donner for making the public believe “that a man could fly.”
Another of his cult films is The Goonies, a comedy in which a group of children searches for a hidden treasure; this film marked the childhood of millions of people around the world. He also left his mark in the industry with Ladyhawke (1985), a romantic movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
But it was the Lethal Weapon saga that elevated him to the mecca of directors who have generated more than a billion dollars at the box office, with four successful installments starring Danny Glover and Mel Gibson.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he continued to direct successful blockbusters. He returned to Gibson for Maverick (1994) and Conspiracy Theory (1997), after working with Bill Murray on the Christmas comedy Scrooged (1988), and with Antonio Banderas and Sylvester Stallone on Assasins (1995).
“Being a director was the best gift in the world. It wasn’t work. It was pleasure,” Donner assured during the gala in his honor organized in 2017 by the Academy.
Donner fell in love with his wife, producer Lauren Shuler, after working together on Ladyhawke, and began producing with her several projects, including the third installment of The Omen and the children’s trilogy Free Willy.
In his last active years, he was the executive producer of the blockbuster X-Men (2000) and its prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), which kept his connection with superhero movies alive.
Born in the Bronx (New York) in 1930, Donner studied business and theater and began his career as an actor on off-Broadway stages, but soon became interested in directing and began to dabble in television. EFE
Text courtesy of EFE
Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
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