Donald was born on the 29th of November, 1892, in Larchmont, New York, as the grandson of General Francis Marshall. He had attended Harvard University and studied landscape architecture. When the US entered into the Great War, Donald was working as an actor and he enlisted in the US Army. He was an ambulance driver in France for a few months before transferring to the American Field Service in September 1917. Seven months later, Donald transferred to the Tank Corps and was a Corporal with B Company, 344th Battalion, 1st Provisional Brigade, which was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George S Patton Jr. His actions on the 26th of September, 1918, would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

During an operation against enemy machine-gun nests west of Varennes, Cpl. Call was in a tank with an officer when half of the turret was knocked off by a direct artillery hit. Choked by gas from the high- explosive shell, he left the tank and took cover in a shellhole 30 yards away. Seeing that the officer did not follow, and thinking that he might be alive, Cpl. Call returned to the tank under intense machine-gun and shell fire and carried the officer over a mile under machine-gun and sniper fire to safety.

Donald managed to not be injured during this action, however, was wounded two days later and sent to the hospital, returning to the line in time to fight in the Argonne and St Mihiel offensives. He received a commission to Second Lieutenant in October of 1918 and three months after the War ended, Donald and sixteen others received the Medal of Honor from General John Pershing during an outdoor ceremony at Chaumont, France.

Donald left the Army after the War and returned to his acting career. He also became the resident landscaping architect for Conde Nast Publications and later for Vogue. Donald would later work for the Federal Housing Administration in Washington DC and would open his own landscaping business there in 1946. Donald had married actress Catherine Lexow in 1919 and they had one son, Donald Jr (who would go on to serve in the US Army during World War 2). Donald Marshall Call died on the 19th of March, 1984 at the age of 91 and his ashes were spread in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack, New York: Section I, Lot 1189.