Clifford was a leading film editor for over ten years, before he made an impressive feature directorial debut with "Frances", the dramatic real-life story of actress Frances Farmer, which gained Academy Award nominations for Jessica Lange and Kim Stanley and was also entered into the 13th Moscow International Film Festival. His second feature outing was the Australian historical adventure-drama "Burke &amp; Wills" which was chosen as a participant in the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. He followed up with the contemporary action-suspense drama "Gleaming the Cube", starring Christian Slater, and "Deception" (a.k.a. "Ruby Cairo"), starring Andie MacDowell, Liam Neeson and Viggo Mortensen.