John Guillermin, a prolific British director best known for blockbusters like the 1974 disaster movie “The Towering Inferno” and the 1976 remake of “King Kong,” died on Sunday at his home in Topanga, Calif. He was 89. The cause was a heart attack, his wife, Mary Guillermin, said. In addition to big-budget extravaganzas, Mr. Guillermin (the name is French, but he pronounced it GILL-er-min) directed a raft of films in various genres from the end of the 1940s until he retired from filmmaking in the 1980s.