Nelson started out as an ice skater in the Sonia Henie Ice Show, then became a dancer and started appearing in Hollywood movies in the late 1940s. After a decade of playing smaller film roles, he turned to directing, and between 1961 and 1979, he helmed numerous feature film and television projects. These include two Elvis Presley movies, Kissin' Cousins (1964, with Yvonne Craig and Teri Garr) and Harum Scarum (1965, with Michael Ansara and Theo Marcuse), and films such as Hand of Death (1962, with Jack Donner) and Your Cheatin' Heart (1964, with Susan Oliver). His television credits include episodes of I Dream of Jeannie, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., Hawaii Five-O, The Mod Squad, Barnaby Jones (starring Lee Meriwether), Starsky and Hutch (starring David Soul), and Fantasy Island (starring Ricard