Richard Fleischer, who directed almost 50 movies, including “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” died Saturday of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles, said his son, Mark Fleischer. He was 89.
More than half a century ago, Richard Fleischer picked up the phone and was stunned. Walt Disney was on the line, asking him to direct “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
“You do know who I am?” Fleischer recalled asking.
His father, animation pioneer Max Fleischer who created Betty Boop and popularized Popeye, was a bitter rival of Disney. Even though the Disney name was not spoken in their home, Fleischer’s father told him the opportunity was too important to pass up.
The lavishly produced 1954 live-action adaptation of the Jules Verne undersea adventure became a box office hit and lifted Fleischer’s career off the B-movie treadmill.
He went on to direct “The Boston Strangler” (1968), the Pearl Harbor docudrama “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970) and the science-fiction adventures “Fantastic Voyage” (1966) and “Soylent Green” (1973).
Los Angeles Times
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