[1] According to one obituary "His career in many ways mirrored that of Ted Post, another inexhaustible director of series television and undemanding movies: reliable rather than stylish, both were nimble soldiers of fortune renowned for bringing work in on time and on budget... Like the best journeymen, he took us on some heroic, enjoyable excursions.
[3] When the war ended, he wrote to Republic Pictures asking for a job and was made an assistant on Love, Honor and Goodbye (1945).
He was assistant director on a series of films for John Wayne's company Batjac: Plunder of the Sun (1953), Island in the Sky (1954), The High and the Mighty (1954), Track of the Cat (1954) and Blood Alley (1954).
[3] After several more assistant director jobs, McLaglen directed his first film, Man in the Vault (1956), written by Burt Kennedy.
It was followed by Gun the Man Down (1956), a western B movie with James Arness, whom McLaglen got to know making Big Jim McLain; it also starred Angie Dickinson and Harry Carey Jr.
[4] During this time he directed two low budget children's films for Robert Lippert released through 20th Century Fox, Freckles (1960) and The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1960).
[3] He returned to television doing episodes of Banacek with Peppard, Hec Ramsey with Richard Boone and Amy Prentiss.
He made some TV movies The Log of the Black Pearl (1975) and Stowaway to the Moon (1975) then returned to features with Mitchell (1975) with Joe Don Baker, and The Last Hard Men (1976) with Charlton Heston and James Coburn.
McLaglen made some more TV movies, Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free (1976), Royce (1976), Murder at the World Series (1977), and Trail of Danger (1978).
[3] It was a huge success, and McLaglen then made Breakthrough (1979), a war film with Burton; North Sea Hijack (1979), an action film with Moore; The Sea Wolves (1980), a war movie from Euan Lloyd, the producer of The Wild Geese, with Moore and Gregory Peck.
McLaglen returned to television to make The Shadow Riders (1982) with Tom Selleck; The Blue and the Gray, an elaborate mini series about the Civil War; and Travis McGee (1983) starring Sam Elliott as Travis McGee, a pilot for a proposed series.
[12] He directed Brooke Shields in Sahara (1983), then did two works for TV: The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985) and On Wings of Eagles (1986).