Life and Career
Donaldson was born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia and in 1965 emigrated to New Zealand, where he established a small still photography business and began making commercials. Donaldson was also directing documentaries - including an adventure series featuring Everest-conquering New Zealander Edmund Hillary - and his first ventures into drama. Donaldson and actor/director Ian Mune collaborated on a number of projects for television, including anthology series Winners and Losers, based on short stories by New Zealand authors.
In 1976 Donaldson directed and produced his first feature Sleeping Dogs. The film starred Mune and Sam Neill as two men fighting for their lives in a totalitarian New Zealand. He followed it with Smash Palace, starring Bruno Lawrence as a man who kidnaps his daughter after his marriage disintegrates.
Donaldson's international break came when producer Dino de Laurentiis invited him to helm a version of Mutiny on the Bounty, after Lawrence of Arabia director David Lean left the project. The film, released as The Bounty, starred Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh and Mel Gibson as mutineer Fletcher Christian. Donaldson was nominated for a Golden Palm at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for this film.
Donaldson went on to direct many popular and successful movies, including his breakthrough American hit thriller No Way Out (starring Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman), barmen romp Cocktail (starring Bryan Brown and Tom Cruise), volcano disaster movie Dante's Peak (starring Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton), and Thirteen Days (starring Kevin Costner), an account of the Cuban missile crisis. He also directed science fiction tale Species, and in 2003, worked with Al Pacino and Colin Farrell for The Recruit.
His son Chris has represented New Zealand at Olympic level in athletics in the 100 m and 200 m events.
Read more about this topic: Roger Donaldson
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