Bill Butler, an Emmy-winning cinematographer, has died. He was 101. Butler, who worked as the director of photography on Jaws, died on Wednesday, according to the American Society of Cinematographers.
Butler worked as a director of photography on several box office hits of the decade, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (for which he received an Oscar nomination), Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, Grease, and Ice Castles, as well as the Bill Murray comedy Stripes. Butler was also credited in other Rocky series films, though not in the original.
Butler also shot Demon Seed and Capricorn One, the Neil Simon adaptation of Biloxi Blues, 1988’s Child’s Play, the musical drama Graffiti Bridge, Flipper, Anaconda, and the 1997 murder thriller Deceiver, starring Tim Roth and Rene Zellweger.
Later, he worked on Bill Paxton’s 2001 crime film Frailty and Chevy Chase’s 2006 comedy Funny Money.
Butler won an Emmy in 1977 for his work on the telefilm Raid on Entebbe and another in 1984 for his work on a version of A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Ann-Margret and Treat Williams. The previous year, he was also nominated for The Thorn Birds, an ABC miniseries.
Bill Butler began his career as an engineer at a radio station in Gary, Indiana.
Bill Butler began his career as an engineer at a radio station in Gary, Indiana, and went on to help design and build the first television stations at ABC’s Chicago affiliate and then at WGN-TV. Butler worked on a documentary that resulted in commuting an Illinois death row inmate’s sentence while there. However, his first credit on a narrative feature came in Philip Kaufman’s 1967 film, Fearless Frank, starring Jon Voight.
Bill Butler met a young Steven Spielberg while working on the Universal lot for Kaufman and ended up as d.p. on two of the director’s early efforts, the TV features Something Evil and Savage, before teaming up for Jaws.
The American Society of Cinematographers has since recognized his work behind the camera, with Butler receiving the lifetime achievement award in 2003.
His wife, Iris, and five daughters survive him.
SOURCE – (ENEWS)
