Nationality: British
Born: 21 January 1926
Died: 6 September 2010
British film and television director. Donner's early films include The Secret Place (1957) and Heart of a Child (1958). He moved into television, directing documentaries and episodes of the series Danger Man (ITV, 1964-69) and Sir Francis Drake (ITV, 1961-62). By 1961 he was making television commercials for J. Walter Thompson and was voted Best TV Commercials Director of that year. Donner then returned to the film industry to direct two episodes of the Merton Park Edgar Wallace 'B' film series, Marriage of Convenience (1960) and The Sinister Man (1961). His next film, Some People (1962), was designed to promote the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme.
Despite early successes, Donner was unable to find a backer for a film version of The Caretaker (1963), written by Harold Pinter, but a private consortium, headed by Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Noël Coward and Peter Sellers, agreed to put up a minimum of £1000 each.
Later films include Nothing But the Best (1964), What's New, Pussycat? (1965), Luv (US, 1967), Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967). Alfred the Great (1969), Vampira (1974), Rogue Male (1976), the first in a BBC trilogy based on famous adventure stories; John Buchan's The Three Hostages (1977) and Dornford Yates' She Fell Among Thieves (1978) followed. For the next decade, Donner alternated between Britain and Hollywood, directing remakes of The Thief of Bagdad (1978), The Scarlet Pimpernel (US, 1982), Oliver Twist (1982) and A Christmas Carol (1984) and American television films such as Merlin and the Sword (1982), To Catch a King (US, 1984), Agatha Christie's Dead Man's Folly and Babes in Toyland (both US, 1986). His last film was Stealing Heaven (1988).
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http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/461852/index.html
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Biography adapted from BFI Screenonline.