Celebrity Biographies
Richard fleischer
He was one of the most versatile filmmakers in Hollywood, since he cultivated war movies and thrillers, although he stood out especially in the field of adventures and science fiction. On March 25, 2006, the filmmaker passed away at his Los Angeles residence, at the age of 89.
Born on December 8, 1916 in Los Angeles, Richard Fleischer was the son of the legendary Max Fleischer. Considered one of the pioneers of animation, Max Fleischer created the very famous Betty Boop with his brother Dave, and brought Popeye the sailor, a character from advertising, to the movies. Young Richard studied drama at Yale University. He began filming documentary newsreels for RKO’s New York subsidiary, leaving such a good taste in the mouth that he was quickly claimed at the headquarters of the Hollywood production company. There, he was commissioned for a series of B-film noir productions, as typical as they were charming. Accused of treason, he marked his debut in the fiction feature film, followed by titles like Come After Me and Trapped .
Fleischer’s first major work was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , an adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic, for which he had exceptional leads: Kirk Douglas and James Mason . Curiously, it was produced by the Walt Disney Company , his father’s eternal rival in the field of animation. From that moment on, blockbusters began to rain on him. The most important was The Vikings , probably his best film, also with Kirk Douglas, followed by Barabbas , in which Anthony Quinn played this episodic evangelical character in a recreation of his possible fate. In amazing trip, science fiction gem, a small medical team traveled inside the body of their patient to try to cure him, if they are not swallowed by leukocytes first. Also belonging to the genre is the cult film When Fate Overtakes Us , starring Charlton Heston , in which humanity is fed some green biscuits called Soylent Green. In the reconstruction of the Pearl Harbor disaster, Tora, Tora, Tora , he directed the sequences relating to the American side, while two Japanese directors took care of the sequences relating to his country.
Richard Fleischer distinguished himself by variety. He shot a couple of biopics ( Che , about Che Guevara and The Incredible Sarah , reconstruction of the life of actress Sarah Bernhardt), some family comedy (the original version of Dr. Dolittle ), three-dimensional B-series horror movies ( Amityville 3D ) and even a musical (the modern version of The Jazz Singer ). His chilling re-enactments of actual murders ( Criminal Impulse , The Boston Strangler, and The Girl with the Red Trapeze ) stand out. The filmmaker continued to be active until the late 1980s, the decade in which he filmed Conan, the Destroyerand Red Sonja , two mediocre films with Arnold Schwarzenegger .