Richard Fleischer

When it came to filmmaking, Richard Fleischer had big shoes to fill. His father, Max, was one of America's most influential animators. However, Richard ultimately grew to find his own passion not via the animator's pencil but the director's chair.

After garnering an Academy Award for Best Documentary with Design for Death (1948), Fleischer became known for an eclectic mix of pictures such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Fantastic Voyage (1966), Doctor Dolittle (1967), The Boston Strangler (1968), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Soylent Green (1973), and Conan the Destroyer (1984), directing such luminaries as Orson Welles, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Joan Collins, Lee Marvin, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In Richard Fleischer: Journeyman, author Jason A. Ney reveals how Fleischer navigated Hollywood's shifting standards, kept a good-humored outlook on his career, and earned lasting appreciation from those who worked with him. In addition to drawing on Fleischer's archived personal papers, Ney conducted original interviews with his family members as well as dozens of his professional collaborators, giving this book a behind-the-scenes feel.

This comprehensive biography is the story of a genre-spanning director, a son of a pioneering animator, and a multifaceted man whose art continues to influence filmmakers today.