Donald Richie was born on April 17, 1924 in Lima, Ohio, USA as Donald Steiner Richie. He is known for his work on Five Filosophical Fables (1970), Under the Skin (2002) and Wargames (1962). He was married to Mary Evans. He died on February 19, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.
[on movies] What happened was that sometimes I was, from a young age, put in the theater to watch movies because they kept me quiet and they kept me entertained, and they got me out from under the feet of my parents. So from a very early age, I went to the movies and I soon grew to prefer the life of the movies to my own life. The reality that the movies offered was preferable to the reality that I was experiencing. I became a child movie addict. I would go in with great pleasure and I'd never look at what was playing -- what was playing was unimportant. The fact was that I was entering a new world, an environment where not only was it much more attractive than my life was ordinarily, but also I could manipulate it to an extent by coming and going, and by looking at scenes or not, which I could not in my own life. I was subjected to my own domestic life. But I discovered a kind of power at the movies.
2
[on writing] When I started to learn how to read, I discovered the same kind of power. I could create an environment that I didn't have, and I could order this environment in the way that I couldn't in my actual life. Then, when I learned to write, I learned that I could do this not only for myself, but for other people. I could create whole things that were believable, at least to myself, at that point. And in this way, I began to wield an authority and a power that I had not had before. In other words, every child goes through this. Some pick football and some pick the library. I picked the library.
3
[on movies] One learns a great deal from the movies. One learns comportment, one learns philosophy, one learns metaphysics, and one learns the meaning of life. I suppose that when one goes to the movies, it sort of seeps in through osmosis, and one learns a lot without knowing it -- even the latest violent flick, one does still does learn something. If you go to a film that thinks, then you learn a great deal more. I think this is true of the appeal of the films. I think that people approach films not only as an escapist drama of one kind or another. These are the great cathedrals of learning. People learn things. I remember in high school, some girls watched how June Allyson went down the steps, which was very graceful. And soon they were all doing it. Betty Grable taught me how to make eggs. You do use it for learning. I mean, role models: Gary Cooper taught me always to be noble and honest. And Johnny Weismuller taught me how to yodel and go through trees! You learn things, right?
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Fact
1
He virtually invented the discipline of Japanese film studies in English with his pioneering survey books on Japanese cinema and his classic studies of the works of Yasujirô Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.
2
Author who wrote about the Japanese people and Japanese cinema.
Director
Title
Year
Status
Character
Five Filosophical Fables
1970
Cybele
1968
Short
Dead Youth
1967
Short
Boy with Cat
1966
Short
Atami Blues
1962
Short
Wargames
1962
Short
Miscellaneous
Title
Year
Status
Character
Dreams
1990
subtitler
The Lovers' Exile
1980
subtitler: English
Kagemusha
1980
subtitle supervisor - US version / subtitler - international version
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Inland Sea
1991
Documentary book
Five Filosophical Fables
1970
Wargames
1962
Short
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Rikyu
1989
Priest
Emotion
1966
Short
Eigo no narêtâ
Composer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Five Filosophical Fables
1970
Wargames
1962
Short
Editor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Five Filosophical Fables
1970
Wargames
1962
Short
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Five Filosophical Fables
1970
producer
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
2011
TV Mini-Series documentary thanks - 2 episodes
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
2011
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself - Interviewee
Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright's Buildings and Legacy in Japan
2008
Video documentary
Narration - as the voice of Frank Lloyd Wright
A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki
2006
Documentary
Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences
2006
Video documentary
Himself
Under the Skin
2002/II
Documentary
Himself
Film Genre
2002
TV Series documentary
Himself
Great Performances
2000
TV Series
Himself
Kurosawa: The Last Emperor
1999
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Music for the Movies: Tôru Takemitsu
1994
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Ikite wa mita keredo - Ozu Yasujirô den
1983
Documentary
Himself
The Man Who Left His Soul on Film
1983
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Conversations with Willard Van Dyke
1981
Documentary
Himself
Tokyo 1958
1958
Documentary short
Won Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
1971
Special Award
National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA
For the three-months retrospective of Japanese films.
Known for movies
Five Filosophical Fables (1970) as Director
Under the Skin (2002) as Himself
Wargames (1962) as Director
Music for the Movies: Tôru Takemitsu (1994) as Himself
$14 Million