Omen/Superman/Goonies director Richard Donner has died

[Mel O'Drama]

Aged 91.

Thanks to his touch, The Omen is one classy film. And Superman: The Movie remains THE superhero film in terms of iconography.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Richard Donner, master of macho blockbusters with a human touch​

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When Hollywood invented the “franchise property”, Donner was at the centre of things. His macho Lethal Weapon movies with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover were far from enlightened on sexual politics. But they gave a black man equal billing with a white man in a top-flight Hollywood movie: rare in 1987 and rare even now.

...Just two guys, black and white, like an LAPD squad car, taking down the bad guys with deafening firepower and spectacular explosions... Nothing conjures up the 1980s like Lethal Weapon, and Donner directed those films with magnificent brio

 

[DallasFanForever]

Very sad news. He definitely left his mark. I see one article referring to him as “the master of macho blockbusters with a human touch.” I think that sums up his career perfectly.

My condolences to his family and friends.

 

[Grant Jennings]

I just read an article that said Richard Donner paid to put one of the kids from Goonies through college; the boy, Jeff Cohen, is now an entertainment attorney. Donner also paid to send Corey Feldman through rehab. People who worked with Donner praised him for his "big heart", humility and kindness. He rescued dozens of dogs throughout his life.

Richard Donner started out directing TV shows; he directed the "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode of The Twilight Zone (the one with William Shatner on a plane). To think that the same man directed both the terrifying The Omen and the optimistic Superman: The Movie shows how versatile he was.

 

[Julia's Gun]

If he was responsible for David Warner's head decapitating from multiple angles in The Omen, then he gets my thumbs up for posterity!

 

[Angela Channing]

He directed a broad body of work. Most of the obituaries I read mentioned Superman and the Goonies but he also directed Scrooged which is a great adaptation of the Dickens classic and also episodes of one of the best series from the 1960s, The Fugitive.