Born in Bristol, England. He produced college plays while attending Oxford and after graduating worked in the British film industry in various capacities, including assistant director, screenwriter, sound editor, film editor, and production manager. He turned out his first film as director in 1937 and after two conventional thrillers and a Spanish Civil War documentary established his reputation with GASLIGHT (1940), a stylish suspense thriller, noted for its period atmosphere and fluid camera work. The negative of the film was acquired by MGM and destroyed, to assure an exclusive market for the studio's own version of GASLIGHT, which was directed by George Cukor in 1944. But several prints turned up later on and the film was exhibited in the US in 1952 as ANGEL STREET. Dickinson reaffirmed his reputation with a WW II training-propaganda documentary NEXT OF KIN (1942) and received high critical acclaim for a visually striking adaptation of Pushkin's THE QUEEN OF SPADES (1949). The filming of his SECRET PEOPLE (1952) was minutely documented in a book by director Lindsay Anderson, The Making of a Film: The Story of "Secret People". Dickinson's last picture was HILL 24 DOESN'T ANSWER (1955), an episodic drama about Israel's War of Independence which, although the first important feature produced in Israel, was among the lesser achievements of Dickinson's career. In 1952-52 he served as chairman of the British Film Academy. From 1956 until 1960 Dickinson headed the UN Office of Public Information and during that period supervised, but did not direct, several documentaries for the international body. From 1958 to 1966 he was president of the International Federation of Film Societies. In 1967 he began teaching film theory at the University of London, becoming the first film professor at any British university. Upon retiring in 1971 he published a book, A Discovery of Cinema. He was also the author of Soviet Cinema (1948).  Nominated for Documentary (Shorts) 1958: OVERTURE - Producer 1 nomination