14 Facts About Clive Donner

Clive Donner directed television movies and commercials through the mid-1990s.

Clive Donner's father was a concert violinist and his mother ran a dress shop; his grandparents were Polish-Jewish immigrants.

Clive Donner began working in the film industry as a cutting-room assistant at Denham Studios, having gained the job after joining his father, who was at the studio to record the soundtrack for the film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

Clive Donner began his professional directing career on a number of low-budget films, starting with The Secret Place, a crime drama about a troubled youth, starring Belinda Lee, Ronald Lewis, and David McCallum.

Clive Donner says then a new manager came in, Connery, and Rank released him from his contract.

Clive Donner directed some commercials and some short features based on Edgar Wallace novels.

Clive Donner did Some People, a film about a group of alienated youths who form a rock band, starring Kenneth More and Ray Brooks.

Clive Donner's next film, Nothing but the Best, was a satire on the British class system starring Alan Bates and Denholm Elliott, based on a screenplay by Frederic Raphael.

Clive Donner rounded out the 1960s with the 9th-century period piece Alfred the Great, starring David Hemmings.

Clive Donner directed the film Vampira, a comedy horror film of the vampire genre that sought to piggyback on the commercial success of Young Frankenstein for its US release.

Clive Donner directed the made-for-television movie Spectre, produced by Gene Roddenberry.

For television, Donner directed a film version of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Ian McKellen and Jane Seymour and productions based on two Charles Dickens novels, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, both starring George C Scott.

Clive Donner died at age 84 on 7 September 2010 at a carer home in Virginia Water, Surrey, due to complications of Alzheimer's disease.

Clive Donner discusses the making of all his films in the book Six English Filmmakers.