Wright was involved in an air crash over Italy in February 1944, and suffered severe burns that also caused blindness. He was sent to three British Army hospital in the three months after his crash; only the third had a plastic surgeon, who managed to save his right hand via postage stamp skin grafts around his wrist. After those three months, he was deemed well enough to return to England and was transferred to QVH in May 1944. One of his first visitors was Sir Ian Fraser, Chairman of St Dunstan's, the organisation that cares for blinded Servicemen and women, who provided a braille watch and organised touch typing lessons. Wright spent the following years in East Grinstead and Church Stretton, Shropshire, the wartime base of St Dunstan's.

Wright went on the found a successful film company in London, after spending more than a decade at Shepperton Studios.

Received an OBE in the 1982 Queen's New Years Honours List.