Richard Donner, the prolific filmmaker and producer behind such big-screen classics as The Goonies, The Omen, the first Superman feature, and the Lethal Weapon films, has died at the age of 91.

Donner's career included executive producing work on Bryan Singer's X-Men in 2000 and the 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine prequel, as well as legendary TV shows from the 1950s and 1960s such as The Twilight Zone and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Donner's production company confirmed his death to Variety, however, no cause has been given.

Donner began his career as an aspiring actor, mostly in off-Broadway productions, before a colleague advised him to try his hand at directing because he didn't think he was up to it.

After six episodes of Wanted: Dead or Alive, a Steve McQueen Western series, in the early 1960s, Donner wandered among studios, directing episodes of Perry Mason, Route 66, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, Kojak, and The Twilight Zone, including a 1963 episode featuring a teenage William Shatner.

Donner's feature film debut came in 1976 with the iconic horror film The Omen, starring Gregory Peck, and it was only two years later that he was working on Superman with Christopher Reeve.

In the 1980s, Donner continued to have success with films like Ladyhawke, The Goonies, and the beginning of the Lethal Weapon trilogy, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.

Sean Astin, who played Mikey in The Goonies, paid tribute to Donner, describing him as a man who "commanded attention" and "laughed like no man has ever laughed before."

‘Dick was a lot of fun,' he continued, ‘and what I saw in him as a 12-year-old kid was that he cared.' I admire how concerned he was.'

‘Goonies Never Say Die,' Astin concluded his tribute with a beloved and tragic quote from the film.

Donner also produced pictures, many of them with his wife Lauren Shuler Donner, in addition to his successful directing career, which saw the Lethal Weapon flicks drive him into the select club of directors who have grossed over $1 billion (£721.8 million).

From the late 1980s through the early 1990s, he produced pictures such as Omen III: The Final Conflict, The Lost Boys, and the Free Willy trilogy, while directing films such as Scrooged, starring Bill Murray, and Assassins, starring Sylvester Stallone.

Following the success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, his most recent producing credit was 2012's Black & White in Colors, though he was also tied to an untitled Goonies re-enactment TV movie and the film's official sequel.

Shuler Donner, his wife, survives him.