American film director
Son of animator Max Fleischer.
Brother of Ruth Fleischer.
Nephew of Dave Fleischer.
Brother-in-law of Seymour Kneitel.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945." Pages 345-351. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
Father of Bruce Fleischer
Father of Mark Fleischer.
Grandfather of Claire Fleischer.
Enjoyed playing the game tiddlywinks with his granddaughter Vivian.
At his LA mansion, had a pool in the shape of Mickey Mouses head.
Grandsons, Nick (b. 1985) and Skyler. Granddaughters, Vivian , Claire and Helen (b. 1996).
His fathers animation studios was one of the biggest competitors to Walt Disney s studio. Ironically, Disney ended up hiring Richard to direct this feature, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea .
Father of Jane Fleischer Reid.
Directed Rex Harrison in three feature films.
Joined RKO in 1940, and for the next three years, co-wrote and edited the Pathe newsreel series "This Is America". He followed this with "Flicker Flashbacks", a series of silent film compilations, which he also produced.
He directed feature films from 1946, under contract first with RKO (to 1951), followed by spells at 20th Century Fox (1955-61 and 1966-69) and Columbia (1971-72), free-lancing in between. He was best known for economically made suspense thrillers and tough crime dramas. His own personal favorite was The Narrow Margin (1952) , shot on a budget of $230,000 within just 13 days. Other hits were dramatisations of real-life murder cases: Compulsion , The Boston Strangler and 10 Rillington Place . He did considerably less well in other genres, particularly after the mid-1960s, when the law of diminishing return applied to an ever increasing number of duds, including Doctor Dolittle , Che! , The Jazz Singer and Red Sonja .
Fleischer was born into a showbusiness family, but harboured ambitions of becoming a psychiatrist. He abandoned medical studies, however, in favour of a drama course at Yale University. At Yale, he established the Arena Players theatre group, acting as producer and director for all of their staged plays.
Los Angeles, California.
Replaced other directors on at least five pictures: His Kind of Woman (John Farrow), The Last Run (John Huston), Mandingo (Michael Campus), Ashanti (Richard C. Sarafian), and The Jazz Singer (Sidney J. Furie). He earned a reputation as a reliable "ringer" and a journeyman.
The filming of Soylent Green , which he directed, was suspended for a week because of the death of his father Max Fleischer.
I liked the first Conan film [Conan the Barbarian (1982) ] very,much; in fact, I saw a lot of The Vikings (1958) in it. It was a,very well-made film, and it had many excellent dramatic qualities.
