[4] Donner did his eighteen months of National Service with the Royal Army Educational Corps,[1] and afterwards was hired by Pinewood Studios as a film editor, where the movies he worked on included Scrooge (1951), with Alastair Sim; The Card (1952), with Alec Guinness; Genevieve (1953), a comedy about a vintage car rally; The Million Pound Note (1954), with Gregory Peck; and I Am a Camera (1955), with Laurence Harvey.

[4] Donner began his professional directing career on a number of low-budget films, starting with The Secret Place (1957), a crime drama about a troubled youth, starring Belinda Lee, Ronald Lewis, and David McCallum.

His television work during that time included episodes of Danger Man (1960) and Sir Francis Drake (1961–62), as well as Mighty and Mystical, a documentary series about India.

[4] Donner's next film, Nothing but the Best (1964), was a satire on the British class system starring Alan Bates and Denholm Elliott, based on a screenplay by Frederic Raphael.

The film tells the story of Jimmy Brewster (played by Bates) as a lower-class striver who seeks to move up in the system under the tutelage of his upper crust instructor Charlie Prince (Elliott).

For television, Donner directed a film version of The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) with Ian McKellen and Jane Seymour[2] and productions based on two Charles Dickens novels, Oliver Twist (1982) and A Christmas Carol (1984), both starring George C.

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