Born in Oak Park, IL; educated at NYU; sometimes credited as Danny Mulroon. The son of a tool manufacturer, he began his working career as an advertising copywriter. After two years of military service as a chaplain's assistant, he worked as an assistant director on an independently made low-budget feature, THE GREENWICH VILLAGE STORY (1963). He was an assistant director on BLACK LIKE ME (1964), assistant production manager on Arthur Penn's MICKEY ONE (1965), and production manager on the shot-in-the-US Italo-French film UNA MOGLIA AMERICANA / RUN FOR YOUR WIFE (1965), 2nd-unit director on Otto Preminger's HURRY SUNDOWN (1967), and associate producer and director of photography on the low-budget OUT OF IT (1969). During these years of apprenticeship, he directed several shorts, including SMILES and LIGHT-SOUND-DIFFUSE, and made a number of commercials for advertising agencies. He launched his career as a feature director with two best-forgotten sex-oriented films, one a melodrama, the other a satire, then first drew critical attention with JOE, a tightly budgeted film about a hardhat bigot which became a surprise sleeper at the box office in 1970. After a string of disappointing films, he came up with another critical and commercial sleeper in ROCKY (1976), for which he won an Academy Award as best director. ROCKY also won the best picture Oscar® and spawned a series of sequels, of which Avildsen directed ROCKY V (1990). In 1980, he scored another hugh box-office hit with THE KARATE KID. Avildsen directed its sequels, THE KARATE KID, PART II (1986) and THE KARATE KID, PART III (1984). He executed his own cinematography on his early films and edited some of his late productions himself. Other notable directing credits include THE FORMULA (1980), NEIGHBORS (1981), TRAVELING HOPEFULLY (1982), A NIGHT IN HEAVEN (1983), HAPPY NEW YEAR (1987), FOR KEEPS? (1988), LEAN ON ME (1989), THE POWER OF ONE (1992), 8 SECONDS (1994), A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE (1998), and INFERNO (1999, video title: "Desert Heat"). He was married actress Tracy Brooks Swope from 1987 to 2003.  Director 1976: ROCKY  Nominated for Documentary (Short Subjects) 1982: TRAVELING HOPEFULLY - Producer 2 nominations, 1 Award