Michael Gordon was a member of the Group Theatre (1935–1940), and was blacklisted as a Communist in the McCarthy era.

Gordon summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut.

He also directed the 1950 film Cyrano de Bergerac, for which José Ferrer won a Best Actor Academy Award.

After being blacklisted, he was forced to stop directing films temporarily, but was called back to Hollywood at the end of the 1950s by producer Ross Hunter, who wanted him to direct Pillow Talk, a vehicle for Doris Day and Rock Hudson.

Gordon and his wife Elizabeth Cohn had three children: Jonathan, Jane (mother of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and Susannah.