Biography
Don Chaffey was a British feature film and television director. After World War II, he got his start working as an art director for an independent studio, then in the early 1950s, he started directing short films and B-movie crime productions that were not quite feature length and were usually paired with a main attraction. As the decade stretched on, Chaffey worked regularly in television, including gigs directing episodes of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan." In the 1960s, Chaffey would direct some of the most celebrated episodes for the cult television series "The Prisoner," starring Patrick McGoohan, as well as episodes for the swinging spy adventure show, "The Avengers," with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. Chaffey frequently worked in the fantasy genre on the big screen as well, and his work in the lavish mythological adventure film "Jason and the Argonauts," featuring the stop motion animation of Ray Harryhausen, is generally considered to be one of his best films. Harryhausen and Chaffey teamed up again a few years later for the prehistoric adventure film "One Million Years B.C.," starring Raquel Welch. "The Viking Queen" and "Creatures the World Forgot," two more pulpy adventure movies set in the far past, followed. But for many viewers, Chaffey's most notable work might be his work for Disney, including "The Three Lives of Thomasina" and the live action/animated musical "Pete's Dragon."
