After a career as magazine editor, Hollywood newspaper columnist and literary agent, entered films as a producer in 1951. Allen won an Oscar for the documentary "The Sea Around Us" (1953), and subsequently specialized in big-budget adventure, sci-fi and disaster films ("The Big Circus" 1959, "The Lost World" 1960, "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" 1961), earning the nickname "Master of Disaster." Standouts include the silly but commercially successful and surprisingly engrossing "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) and "The Towering Inferno" (1974). As a television producer he was responsible for the popular sci-fi fantasy series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1964-67), "Lost in Space" (1965-67), "Land of the Giants" (1968-69) and "The Swiss Family Robinson" (1975).