A graduate of the Harvard School of Business, Walter Doniger started as a scriptwriter in the early 1940s with Universal. During the war years he collaborated on training films for the US Army. He maintained an interest in military matters that was reflected in much of his later work, both for television and for the big screen. The script for one of his last projects, "The Last Days of Saigon", written between 1980 and 1981, remained uncompleted and is held . Doniger's style of directing was known to be somewhat abrasive. On occasion, this brought him into conflict with producers and stars, possibly precipitating his retirement from film work in 1991. He donated his personal archives of screen memorabilia to the Cinematic Arts Library of the University of Southern California.
