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 Destination danger (1960), Le prisonnier (1967) and Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir (1961). Although he worked in many film genres, his best work is generally acknowledged to be the crackerjack fantasy Jason et les Argonautes (1963). On the other hand, he was also responsible for the lugubrious, box-office disaster La reine des Vikings (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.
