- Directed five different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Natalie Wood, Ruth Gordon and Ellen Burstyn. Peck won an Oscar for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
- His first job in show business was an entry-level position at CBS. He worked his way up in television, and became a director of Emmy-winning TV movies and live dramas. In the late 1950s he branched out into films.
- He directed his younger brother Richard Mulligan in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963).
- Served as a radio operator with the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.
- Many of his films concerned young people on the verge of self-discovery, confronting the world around them or rebelling against it.
- He studied journalism and literature in college.
- Attended Fordham University.
- He directed Ruth White in four films: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965), Up the Down Staircase (1967) and The Pursuit of Happiness (1971).
- He was the first director approached about directing "Taxi Driver" in the mid-1970s (against the wishes of screenwriter Paul Schrader), but turned it down. Later, he actually began work on directing "Rich and Famous" (1981), but was replaced by George Cukor.
- Some of his obituaries suggested he had had problems with alcoholism in his later life.
- Uncle of James Mulligan.
- Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 692-697. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
- Has one other brother James Mulligan.
- Has three children: Beth Mulligan, Christopher Mulligan, and Kevin Mulligan.
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