British director Don Chaffey began his career in the film industry in the art department at Gainsborough Pictures. He began directing in 1951, often working on films aimed at children. He branched out into television in the mid-'50s, turning out many of the best episodes of such classic series as Danger Man (1960), The Prisoner (1967) and The Avengers (1961). Although he worked in many film genres, his best work is generally acknowledged to be the crackerjack fantasy Jason and the Argonauts (1963). On the other hand, he was also responsible for the lugubrious, box-office disaster The Viking Queen (1967), one of the few productions from Hammer Films that lost money. In the late 1970s Chaffey traveled to the US and worked primarily there, often in made-for-TV movies. Born in Hastings and educated at Hastings Grammar School which he left to be an articled clerk to an architect but gave up after 3 years to become an occupational therapist in a mental hospital. However his interest was always in films and he eventually got a job in the art department of Lime Grove Studios. In. 1946 he was appointed art director on 'Theirs is the Glory' followed by other films such as 'The Little Ballerina' and 'Journey For Jeremy' Eventually he got an opportunity to move on to his ambition to be a film director when he directed a series of children's films including 'Mysterious Poacher' which won him a Gold Medal at the Venice Film Festival in 1950.After directing films for television he got his first feature 'The Flesh is Weak, then went back to directing episodes of television series including 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' and 'The Four Just Men' before returning to films with 'The Man Upstairs', 'Greyfriars Bobby', One Million Years B.C. 'Pete's Dragon' and Jason and the Argonauts' amongst them. In between there's been a return to directing episodes of some top television series such as @The Avengers','Charlie's Angels', 'T.J. Hooker' and 'Mission Impossible'