Donald Sanford, writer for television and motion pictures, was born on March 17, 1918. It was always his goal to be a writer, and while in college he studied dramatics and playwriting.
Sanford began his professional career in 1939 with CBS Radio in Hollywood where he began as a page and tour guide and eventually became a writer. World War II interrupted his career, as Sanford served in the Navy for four years. After the war, he worked for the United Nations for two years. As the supervisor of their Disc Recording Division, Sanford was responsible for aiding in the preparation of programs for release to radio stations all over the world. He then joined the DuMont Television Network where he worked as an audio engineer, cameraman, technical director, and stage manager for almost three years. While there he began to do freelance writing with one of his first efforts being The Plainclothesman. Sanford later co-produced, wrote, and edited this series which became one of DuMont's top-rated shows. He resigned from the network in June, 1950, to become the head writer for Martin Kane, Private Eye, where he remained under contract until 1953. He then headed west to Hollywood and for the next two years Sanford worked for Hal Roach Studios as head writer for the anthology series Telephone Time and the adventure/action series Passport to Danger. Later he also worked for Revue Studios where he wrote scripts for Thriller and many others. Since his pioneer days with DuMont, Sanford's writing credits include work on over 40 network series. Among these are anthologies such as The Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre, Climax, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, The Loretta Young Show, and Telephone Time; dramatic series including Bonanza, Dr. Kildare, Felony Squad, Gunsmoke, The Outer Limits, Perry Mason, Thriller, Twelve O'Clock High, The Virginian, and Wagon Train; and the soap opera Days of Our Lives.
Since 1953 he has been active in both the screen and television branches of the Writers Guild of America (WGA). He won the first annual Writers Guild of America Award for his drama “The Golden Junkman” (Telephone Time) which was judged the best half-hour teleplay for the 1955/56 season. His scripts for “Last Hunt” (Bonanza, 1959/60) and for “The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk” (Thriller, 1961/62) also received WGA nominations for their respective seasons.
In addition to his television work in recent years Sanford has written several motion picture screenplays and for a time was under contract to the Mirisch Company. His credits include Mosquito Squadron, Submarine X-1, Thousand Plane Raid, and Midway, the latter film being Universal Studio's top box office attraction in 1976. He also worked on Casino Royale, although he did not receive screen credit for the film. In addition, Columbia Pictures was scheduled to release The Ravagers in early 1979. Sanford also novelized his Midway screenplay for publication by Bantam Books.
