Richard Fleischer

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Richard O Fleischer December 8 1916 March 25 2006 was an American film director Fleischer was born in Brooklyn the son of Essie née Goldstein and animatorproducer Max Fleischer After graduating from Brown University he went to Yale School of Drama where he met his future wife Mary Dickson His film career began in 1942 at the RKO studio directing shorts documentaries and compilations of forgotten silent features Fleischer moved to Los Angeles and was assigned his first feature Child of Divorce 1946 In 1954 he was chosen by Walt Disney his fathers former rival as a cartoon producer to direct 20000 Leagues Under the Sea starring Kirk Douglas In 1955 Fox signed Fleischer to a long term contract He would work for that studio for the next fifteen years His first film under his new contract with Fox was The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing 1955 Kirk Douglas hired Fleischer to make The Vikings 1958 which was another big hit He then moved to Paris where he directed two stories for Darryl F Zanuck starring Greco Fleischer then signed a contract with Dino de Laurentiis to make Barabbas 1962 Back in Hollywood Richard Zanuck had become head of production at Fox and offered Fleischer Fantastic Voyage 1966 It was a success and resurrected his Hollywood career Che 1969 a biopic of Che Guevera that starred Omar Sharif was an expensive flop as was an account of the attack on Pearl Harbor Tora Tora Tora 1970 This was his last film for 20th Century Fox Fleischer travelled to England where he directed an acclaimed thriller 10 Rillington Place See No Evil 1971 with Mia Farrow was another thriller In Hollywood he made The New Centurions 1972 At MGM he made a sciencefiction film Soylent Green 1973 with Charlton Heston He was reunited with De Laurentiis for the popular if controversial Mandingo 1975 The Prince and the Pauper 1977 was a version of the Mark Twain novel that featured Heston Harrison and Scott in its cast Fleischer was then hired on Ashanti 1979 starring Michael Caine which turned out to be a flop Tough Enough 1983 was about the Toughman Contest starring Dennis Quaid He made three more for de Laurentiis His final theatrical feature was Million Dollar Mystery 1987 Fleischer was chairman of Fleischer Studios which today handles the licensing of Betty Boop and Koko the Clown In June 2005 he released his memoirs of his fathers career in Out of the Inkwell Max Fleischer and the Animation Revolution Fleischers 1993 autobiography Just Tell Me When to Cry described his many difficulties with actors writers and producers Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard O Fleischer licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia