The Goonies castmates Sean Astin and Corey Feldman pay tribute to their director Richard Donner, remembered as a “real-life Superman.” The Donners’ Company, the production company the Superman: The Movie and Lethal Weapon filmmaker founded with his wife and producing partner Lauren Shuler Donner, confirmed the news of Donner’s death on Monday. He was 91. Astin and Feldman, who starred together in the beloved 1985 adventure comedy as Mikey and Mouth, respectively, took to social media to pay tribute to the “incredible director and storyteller.”
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“Richard Donner had the biggest, boomiest voice you could imagine. He commanded attention and he laughed like no man has ever laughed before,” Astin tweeted. “Dick was so much fun. What I perceived in him, as a 12 year old kid, is that he cared. I love how much he cared.”
Richard Donner had the biggest, boomiest voice you could imagine.
He commanded attention and he laughed like no man has ever laughed before. Dick was so much fun. What I perceived in him, as a 12 year old kid, is that he cared. I love how much he cared.– Goonies Never Say Die
— Sean Astin (@SeanAstin) July 5, 2021
Astin signed the tribute with “Goonies Never Say Die,” the motto of the cast of kid characters that includes Chunk (Jeff Cohen), Data (Jonathan Ke Huy Quan), Andy (Kerri Green), Stef (Martha Plimpton), and Brand (Josh Brolin).
Feldman honored Donner in a series of tweets, calling the Goonies director “a dear friend, mentor, & the closest thing I ever had [to] a real father.”
RICHARD DONNER WAS AN INCREDIBLE HUMAN! HE WAS THERE 4 ME N TIMES THROUGHOUT MY LIFE WHEN NO OTHER PERSON WOULD! NOT ONLY WAS HE AN INCREDIBLE DIRECTOR & STORY TELLER OF SUCH INCREDIBLE FILMS LIKE #THEGOONIES #LETHALWEAPON #SUPERMAN #THEOMEN #FREEWILLY & MY PERSONAL FAV #SCROOGED
— Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) July 5, 2021
MORE OFTEN THAN ANY OTHER HOLLYWOOD PRODUCER! BECAUSE HE APPRECI8ED MY WORK, BUT MORESO BECAUSE HE CARED SO DEEPLY ABOUT EVERYONE WHO AFFECTED HIM IM A LOVING WAY! HE WAS THE GR8 UNCLE 2 ALL WHO KNEW HIM! I LOVE THIS MAN SO MUCH, & SO SORRY 2 LAUREN 4 YOUR LOSS! #RIPRICHARDDONNER
— Corey Feldman (@Corey_Feldman) July 5, 2021
Astin and Feldman in recent years revealed they once pitched a Goonies 2 to Donner, who said the idea was “too expensive” and that a 35-plus years later sequel would have to “go smaller.”
“I remember him saying, ‘Wow, you guys put a lot of effort into that.’ We were like, yeah, we did. He goes, ‘Yeah, we’re not doing that,’” Astin said during FAN EXPO Boston in 2019. On Donner’s desire to “do something smaller,” Feldman recalled Donner saying, “‘We want to follow more of the family, where are they today, and keeping it more quaint.’ I’m like, ‘This is Goonies 2! How do you [go smaller]? But okay, you’re the man.’”
Last month, Feldman said a Goonies 2 couldn’t happen without Donner, who would be busy with his “swan song” Lethal Weapon 5.
“When I found out my dear friend Richard Donner had signed on to do Lethal Weapon 5 as his swan song, well, that pretty much sewed up the rumor mill right there. It’s done,” Feldman told Dread Central last month of hopes for a Goonies sequel. “We cant make [The Goonies 2] without [Donner]. And [Donner’s] off shooting guns with the Lethal Weapon people.”
“And that is the shame of it. Because, just like when we did the Zooms last year,” added Feldman, referring to the virtual reunion attended by Donner and the surviving Goonies cast and creators in April 2020, “I mean, it doesn’t matter how many grey hairs everybody’s got on their faces, the love is still there.”
