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Richard Donner

Directing

Richard Donner

Apr 24, 1930 – Jul 5, 2021133 titles 81 movies · 52 TV
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IMDb

Biography

Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American filmmaker. Described as "one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters", Donner directed some of the most financially successful films of the 1970s and 1980s. His career spanning more than six decades crossed genres and influenced trends among filmmakers across the world. Donner began his career in 1957 as a television director. In the 1960s, he directed episodes of the series The Rifleman, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, The Twilight Zone, The Banana Splits, and many others. Donner made his film debut with the low-budget aviation drama X-15 in 1961, but had his critical and commercial breakthrough with the horror film The Omen in 1976. He directed the landmark superhero film Superman in 1978, which provided an inspiration for the fantasy film genre to eventually gain artistic respectability and commercial dominance. Donner later went on to direct films in the 1980s such as The Goonies and Scrooged, while reinvigorating the buddy cop film genre with the Lethal Weapon series. Donner and his wife, Lauren, owned a production company, The Donners' Company, which is most successful for producing the Free Willy and X-Men film franchises. Donner also produced Tales from the Crypt and co-wrote several comic books for Superman publisher DC Comics. In 2000, Donner received the President's Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard Donner, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Also known as

Richard D. Schwartzberg · Richard D. Donner · R.D. Donner · Dick Donner · Richard Donald Schwartzberg

Born

Apr 24, 1930 – Jul 5, 2021

Bronx, New York, USA

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Photos

Profile images from TMDB · click to enlarge

5 images

Roles across career

Titles counted once; a person can act and direct on the same film (roles merged).

51

Acting credits

72

Directing

1

Writing

33

Other crew

Most critically rated

Highest TMDB score (min 100 votes)

Most commercially successful

Highest TMDB vote count (attention / reach proxy; not box office)

Career timeline

By release / first air year · movie & TV merged

Orbit ↑

1953 1 title(s)

1954 1 title(s)

1956 1 title(s)

1957 3 title(s)

1958 2 title(s)

1959 2 title(s)

1960 2 title(s)

1961 1 title(s)

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1963 5 title(s)

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1965 4 title(s)

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1967 1 title(s)

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1971 3 title(s)

1972 5 title(s)

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1991 1 title(s)

1992 4 title(s)

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1995 7 title(s)

1996 2 title(s)

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1998 1 title(s)

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2001 4 title(s)

2002 1 title(s)

2003 1 title(s)

2005 1 title(s)

2006 5 title(s)

2008 1 title(s)

2009 2 title(s)

2010 2 title(s)

2012 2 title(s)

2013 2 title(s)

2014 1 title(s)

2016 1 title(s)

2017 2 title(s)

2018 2 title(s)

2019 2 title(s)

2020 2 title(s)

2023 1 title(s)

2024 1 title(s)

Undated 1 title(s)