His most commercially successful work was the Led Zeppelin concert film The Song Remains the Same (1976).
Clifton was born in Sydney and had experience in music film production prior to his involvement with Led Zeppelin, having made a 30-minute cinema short about Australian band The Easybeats' tour of England in 1967, called Somewhere Between Heaven And Woolworths, and also having filmed Jimi Hendrix live in concert.
Clifton also made the famous film clip of the Rolling Stones' performance of "Jumpin' Jack Flash".
Clifton returned to Australia in the mid-1980s after many years living overseas to start the Hard Rock Cafe there.
In 2003 Clifton co-wrote with Michael Thomas and produced his first feature film, The Night We Called It a Day, the story of Frank Sinatra's tour of Australia in 1974.