- Son of actor Victor McLaglen.
- Holds the distinction of directing the most episodes of Gunsmoke (1955) (96).
- He was born in London but grew up around Hollywood, where his father often took him on movie sets. He learned the art of directing from greats such as John Ford, who eventually gave him a job as assistant director on The Quiet Man (1952).
- In interviews with Christopher Frayling McLaglen rejected criticisms that he was no more than a journeyman director. He claimed that he had kept the traditional Western alive, that he had revived the late careers of James Stewart and John Wayne and that he had reversed the previous stereotype of Native Americans. He liked Frayling's likening him to a figurative painter when everybody else had gone abstract.
- One of the few directors to have directed both Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. Some of the others are Don Siegel and John Sturges.
- Holds the distinction of directing the most episodes of Have Gun - Will Travel (1957) (116).
- Father of Mary McLaglen and Josh McLaglen.
- In 1997 he retired to the San Juan Islands in Washington. He directed several plays for the San Juan Island Community Theater.
- In 1956 he directed "Gun the Man Down", a western B movie with James Arness, whom McLaglen got to know making Big Jim McLain; it also starred Angie Dickinson and Harry Carey Jr. McLaglen had impressed James Arness who arranged for the director to start helming episodes of Gunsmoke.
- Andrew McLaglen is briefly mentioned in a line in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" by Kurt Russell's character, Randy Miller, who says, "Hey man, this ain't a f-king Andy McLaglen picture, you know? I can't afford to hire a bunch of guys to smoke cigarettes and sit around talking to each other all day on the chance that I might use them.".
- He was an assistant on two Budd Boetticher films, Killer Shark (1950) and Bullfighter and the Lady (1951); on the latter he was promoted to first assistant director.
- After several more assistant director jobs, McLaglen directed his first film, Man in the Vault (1956), written by Burt Kennedy.
- During World War Two McLaglen was ruled 4F due to his height and went to work at Lockheed for four years.
- McLaglen directed The Abductors (1957) starring his father Victor.
- When the war ended he wrote to Republic Pictures asking for a job and was made an assistant on Love, Honor and Goodbye (1945). He worked for two years as a general clerk at Republic on movies such as Dakota (1945) then became a second assistant director.
- He was 2nd AD on John Ford's The Quiet Man (1952) with his father, and 1st AD on Wild Stallion (1952), Here Come the Marines (1952), Big Jim McLain (1952) with John Wayne, Hellgate (1952), Kansas Pacific (1953), and Fort Vengeance (1953).
- He was from a film family that included eight uncles and an aunt, and he grew up on movie sets with his parents as well as John Wayne and John Ford.
- According to one obituary "His career in many ways mirrored that of Ted Post, another inexhaustible director of series television and undemanding movies: reliable rather than stylish, both were nimble soldiers of fortune renowned for bringing work in on time and on budget... Like the best journeymen, he took us on some heroic, enjoyable excursions. ".
- He attended Black Fox Military and The Carl Curtis School then the Cates School in Santa Barbara and the University of Virginia.
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