Died at 96
male
Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930–July 5, 2021) was an American film director and producer. 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 50-year career 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.
Richard Donner
Director
for Director in Ilya Salkind's Superman III (1983)
Suggested by tomzillawash3r3
What if Ilya Salkind's treatment of Superman III was actually used for the final film? Before the credits roll, it's revealed that Lois has transferred out of Metropolis and is replaced by a young woman named Lana Lang and she and Clark take a liking to each other. It is then revealed through flashback that another being escaped Krypton, another young baby, a girl, who remains unnamed. She lands on Colu, the home world of Brainiac who adopts her. She grows up and Brainiac begins to show affection for her and asks her to marry him but she denies it and leaves for Earth. Here, she finds Clark Kent/Superman and they fall in love (they aren't related in this universe) and she becomes Supergirl. Brainiac eventually finds them and starts to wreck havoc on Earth which involves changing Superman's personality to make him unpredictable, going back in time to the dark ages and becoming a tyrant, and fighting in a pocket dimension against Superman and Supergirl. As well as the Man of Steel meeting the being from the 5th dimension, Mr. Mxyzptlk. [Poster by Peter Stults]
