Robert Butler (director)


Robert Stanton Butler was an American film and Emmy Award-winning television director. He is best known for his work in television, where he directed the pilots for a number of series including Star Trek, Hogan's Heroes, ''Batman, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Hill Street Blues''.

Career

Butler graduated from University of California, Los Angeles, where he majored in English. He was first in an army band, before his career as a stage manager and an assistant before launching his directing career with an episode of Hennesey and then went on to direct such shows as The Untouchables, Dr. Kildare, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Batman, The Fugitive and The Twilight Zone.
Butler shot pilots for many TV series including the original Star Trek, Shane, Hogan's Heroes, Batman, The [Blue Knight (TV series)|The Blue Knight], Hill Street Blues, Remington Steele, Moonlighting, Sisters, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
Butler also directed episodes for many other shows, including Bonanza, I Spy, Blue Light, The Invaders, Gunsmoke, The Outcasts, Mission: Impossible, Kung Fu, Hawaii Five-O, Columbo: Publish or Perish, Columbo: Double Shock and Midnight Caller.
Butler directed actor Kurt Russell in four Walt Disney movies, including Guns in the Heather, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and The Barefoot Executive.
Butler won two Emmy Awards for outstanding directing, the first in 1973 for The Blue Knight pilot and the second in 1981 for his Hill Street Blues premiere.
In 2014, Butler's work was the subject of a career retrospective at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Butler was honored by the Directors Guild of America with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Achievement in Television Direction in February 2015.
Butler died in Los Angeles on November 3, 2023, missing his 96th birthday by thirteen days. With his death, Ralph Senensky had become the last living director to direct an episode of Star Trek until his own death almost exactly 2 years later on November 1, 2025

Filmography

Film

Guns in the Heather The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes The Barefoot Executive Scandalous John Now You See Him, Now You Don't The Ultimate Thrill Black Bart Hot Lead and Cold Feet Night of the Juggler Underground Aces Up The Creek Turbulence
  • ''Where Do the Balloons Go?''

Television

TV movies
YearTitleDirectorProducerWriter
1971Death Takes a Holiday
1973The Blue Knight
1974McMasters of Sweetwater
1975Strange New World
1976Dark Victory
1976James Dean
1976Mayday at 40,000 Feet!
1977In the Glitter Palace
1978Lacy and the Mississippi Queen
1978A Question of Guilt
1984Concrete Beat
1986Long Time Gone
1987On the Edge
1988Out of Time
1991The Brotherhood
1994White Mile
1998Glory, Glory

Associate directorClimax!