Lauren Shuler Donner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lauren Shuler Donner
Lauren Shuler Donner by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Donner at the 2019 WonderCon
Born
Lauren Diane Shuler[1]

(1949-06-23) June 23, 1949 (age 72)
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
OccupationProducer
Years active1978–present
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1980; div. 1984)​

​
​
(m. 1985; died 2021)​

Lauren Diane Shuler Donner (born June 23, 1949) is an American film producer, who specializes in mainstream youth and family-oriented entertainment. She owned The Donners' Company with her late husband, director Richard Donner. Her films have grossed about $4.5 billion worldwide, mostly due to the X-Men film series.[2]

Early life and career[]

Donner was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She is of Jewish descent.[3] She is the daughter of a wholesale distributor and a housewife. She was raised in Cleveland, where she took on photography and frequently went to the movies with a cousin. She studied film at Boston University, specializing in production and editing. Following the advice of a teacher, she moved to Los Angeles in hopes of entering the entertainment industry.[4]

As Donner worked in Los Angeles as an assistant editor of educational and medical films, she sought other jobs and despite having no original intention to work in television, a chance meeting at NBC headquarters led her to leave her data there. In 1973, the network invited Shuler to a vacation relief program filling in for employees on vacation. She worked on many jobs, but decided that the best for her would be as a camera operator due to her photography experience. After being taught about cameras by the crew of The Tonight Show, Shuler asked NBC to work on the local news. Afterwards she freelanced on Metromedia, working on rock concert shoots, sitcoms and TV movies. Donner was a rare camerawoman in a male-dominated field, being the first woman admitted to the IATSE Electrical and Camera Guild #659.[4][5]

Eventually Donner decided to work as an associate producer, in 1976 joining ABC's Wide World of Entertainment.[5] After a traffic accident that had her hospitalized for months, Donner started working with screenwriter friends and became a creative executive/story editor on Motown Productions.[6] Her input on the script of Thank God It's Friday (1978) led her to become an associate producer for that film. Next she made her television producing debut in 1979 with the acclaimed Amateur Night at the Dixie Bar and Grill, a television film written and directed by Joel Schumacher in the style of Robert Altman's Nashville. She got the job by directly asking NBC programming director Charles Engel.[4]

Feature film production career[]

While working at Motown, Donner became a personal friend of National Lampoon writer John Hughes, and convinced him to write a script that would become her feature film producing debut, the 1983 comedy hit Mr. Mom, starring Michael Keaton.[4] The following year she persuaded Richard Donner to direct Ladyhawke, and the two fell in love, marrying a year after the film was released, 1985. She produced only two more of her husband's movies, Radio Flyer (1992), and Timeline (2003). She said their professional relationship helped her learn how to work on action films: "if I hadn't seen how he did action movies, I wouldn't have had the wherewithal to even pursue an X-Men or a Constantine, or any of those".[7] Her experience with Schumacher and Hughes led them to invite her to produce St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and Pretty in Pink (1986), both seminal films of the Brat Pack period.[4] Donner had a particularly successful year in 1993 overseeing two solid hits: Dave, a homespun political comedy, and Free Willy, a family film about a boy and his whale.[7] While Donner has credits in all X-Men films, the last ones she actually produced were X-Men: Days of Future Past and Deadpool; Simon Kinberg took over the later films so Donner could instead make the TV show Legion,[8][9] with Donner only receiving producer credit out of loyalty.

Personal life[]

Donner has systemic lupus erythematosus,[10] and had kidney problems in her childhood.[4] She has liberal political views and likes to work on movies that express her beliefs – Dave for politics, Free Willy for marine life and Hotel for Dogs for animal rights. She has served on the advisory boards of Planned Parenthood and TreePeople, and was instrumental in the campaigning for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act.[2]

Awards and honors[]

Donner has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008, right next to her husband's.[2][7] In 2006, Donner was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award along with Jennifer Lopez and Diane Warren.[11] She received an honorary Doctorate of Human Letters degree from Boston University in 2019 and was the Commencement Speaker for COM at Boston University.[12] She and Richard Donner were honored by The American Cancer Society in 2006. The Donners were given The Loop Award by LupusLA in 2008. The Donners were also given a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Ojai Film Festival in November 2008. In 2013, the Donners were honored by The Women's Guild of Cedar Sinai Medical Center.

Filmography[]

Producer

Executive producer

Acting credits[]

Year Title Role Notes
1990 Tales from the Crypt Wife at Bar Uncredited;
Episode "The Ventriloquist's Dummy"
1992 Lethal Weapon 3 Nurse
1994 Maverick Mrs. D. (Bathhouse Maid)

References[]

  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 16, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Hollywood Star Walk: Lauren Shuler Donner. Los Angeles Times
  3. ^ Erens, Patricia. "Film Industry in the United States". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Priggé, Steven (2004). Movie Moguls Speak: Interviews with Top Film Producers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 87–102. ISBN 0-7864-1929-6.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Mr. Mom Press Kit Archived January 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Interview with Producer Lauren Shuler Donner (Part 1 of 2)
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c Longwell, Todd. Icons: The Donners. The Hollywood Reporter; October 15, 2008
  8. ^ Kit, Borys (June 10, 2019). ""We Were Wrong": Behind Fox's Dark Phoenix Debacle". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  9. ^ Lauren Shuler Donner Confirms Fox Marvel Movies on Hold; Wants ‘X-Men’ Franchise to “Evolve”, Collider
  10. ^ Jewett-Tennant, Jeri. Celebrities with Lupus: Lauren Schuler Donner. Lupus.About.com. Updated: August 28, 2008.
  11. ^ "Women in Film Los Angeles Announces the 2010 Crystal Lucy Awards Honorees". Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
  12. ^ "Meet This Year's Honorary Degree Recipients". Boston University. Retrieved July 20, 2019.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""