A chorus boy with New York's "Ziegfeld Follies" in the late '20s, Donohue choreographed Broadway musicals in the early '30s and became a dance director in Hollywood in 1934. An occasional director, he helmed his first film in 1948, the espionage drama Close-Up. In the '50s Donohue directed the Red Skelton comedies The Yellow Cab Man and Watch the Birdie; the dance sequences of the Doris Day musical Calamity Jane; and all of the Day songfest Lucky Me. After directing Babes in Toyland for Disney in 1961, Donohue helmed the Frank Sinatra vehicles Marriage on the Rocks and Assault on a Queen.