The director of 1993’s enduring classic Fire in the Sky, Bloody Disgusting has learned that Robert Lieberman passed away at the age of 75 earlier this month after a battle with cancer.
Many horror fans consider Fire in the Sky to be the most terrifying alien abduction movie ever made, with one scene in particular being among the scariest in the genre’s history.
Released in theaters in 1993, Fire in the Sky was based on Travis Walton’s book The Walton Experience, which itself was based on Walton’s real-life tales of alien abduction.
In the film’s most harrowing scene, Walton (played by D.B. Sweeney) is experimented on by a group of aliens, first emerging from a slimy cocoon and then being subjected to various forms of extraterrestrial torture. It’s a sequence that once seen is never unseen, frequently popping up on lists of the scariest scenes in horror movie history thanks to Lieberman’s direction.
In addition to Fire in the Sky, Robert Lieberman also directed films including All I Want for Christmas, D3: The Mighty Ducks, The Tortured, Breakaway, and Christmas in Tahoe.
Much of Lieberman’s directing work was on the small screen, and he directed episodes of “The X-Files,” “The Dead Zone,” “Dexter,” “Nikita,” “Lost Girl,” and “The Expanse.”
Deadline notes in their obituary, “Robert Lieberman kicked off his 50-plus year career as an assistant editor in commercials but by the mid-’70s had worked his way up to directing. He ended up helming more than a thousand spots for McDonald’s, Hallmark, Oreo among countless others and winning the DGA Award in 1979 and 1995.”
Along with his son Nick, Lieberman is survived by his wife, Victoria Peters; his daughter, Erin, and son-in-law, producer Trent Othick; sons Lorne and Joey; a step-daughter, Kristen Konvitz, an agent at UTA; three grandchildren; and a sister, Fern Kelman.
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