During World War II, while serving in the British Army's Royal Signals Corps, he met Peter Ustinov and subsequently assisted him on two films.
[4][5] Anderson appeared in two films as an actor: as Oily Boyd in Housemaster (1938); and as Marine Albert Fosdick in Noël Coward's In Which We Serve (1942).
His credits as assistant director include Spy for a Day (1940), Freedom Radio (1940), Quiet Wedding (1941), Cottage to Let (1941) and Jeannie (1941).
Anderson served with the Royal Corps of Signals during the Second World War, during which time he met Peter Ustinov.
[7] The Telegraph critic announced, "I can only burn my boats and prophesy that young Michael Anderson is possibly the most promising discovery since Carol Reed and David Lean.
[11] Todd recalled when first told Anderson was to direct "I thought this was typical ABPC cheese-paring, instead of getting an expensive well-known director.
[13] Todd worked twice more with Anderson, calling him "a supremely authoritative, quiet, collected director who knew exactly what he wanted and what he could get out of his actors.
[14] Anderson was then called in to direct Around the World in 80 Days (1956), after original director John Farrow had a falling out with producer Mike Todd.
It was the biggest stage in the world and I remember looking at it and thinking I'll be here in a couple of weeks and they'll have built a ship and I'll be directing Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston – it's all going to be mine.
"[8] MGM also financed Anderson's next film, the melodrama All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) with Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner.
[24] Harold Pinter wrote The Servant for Anderson but the director was unable to secure finance so he sold the script to Joseph Losey, who filmed it with great success in 1963..[8] Anderson made some films for Harold Hecht: Flight from Ashiya (1964), an adventure tale, and Wild and Wonderful (1964), a comedy with Tony Curtis.
He was meant to direct the big screen adaptation of James Clavell's Tai Pan starring Patrick McGoohan but the film was not made due to high costs.
Logan's Run (1976), about a futuristic society where humanity is imprisoned in a death trap sealed dome controlled by a computer, was an expensive box-office success, earning $50 million worldwide and boosting sales for its distributor, Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
His feature work in Canada included, Murder by Phone (1982), the New Zealand film, Second Time Lucky (1984), Separate Vacations (1986), Summer of the Monkeys (1998), Millennium (1989) and The Grand Defiance (1993), as well as episodes of the television anthology series Scales of Justice.
He directed Bottega dell'orefice (The Jeweler's Shop, 1988), based on the 1960 play written by Karol Wojtyła, who, by the time the film was made, had become Pope John Paul II.