Robert Butler was an Emmy Award-winning television director who worked on shows like “Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible,” the 1966 “Batman” series, and “Hill Street Blues,” and co-created the espionage show “Remington Steele.”
- Died: November 3, 2023 (Who else died on November 3?)
- Details of death: Died in Los Angeles at the age of 95.
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Robert Butler’s legacy
Butler graduated from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English, then began work as a stage director before transitioning to television. After a few assistant director gigs in the late 1950s, he landed his first directorial job on the show “Hennesey.” A long and storied career directing television shows followed.
Butler was a workhorse throughout the 1960s, directing episodes of such shows as “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” “The Twilight Zone,” and “The Fugitive.” He also helped launch some of TV’s most beloved series, directing the pilot episodes of “Star Trek,” the 1966 version of “Batman,” and “Hogan’s Heroes.”
His work would continue into the 1990s. He directed the pilot episodes of “Moonlighting” and “Hill Street Blues,” and worked on “The Waltons,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” and many others. In 1982, Butler co-created the character and show “Remington Steele,” which helped make Pierce Brosnan a star. The show ran for 94 episodes over five seasons.
Butler won two Emmy Awards for directing, one for the TV movie “The Blue Knight” and another for the premiere of “Hill Street Blues.” In 2015, he was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Director’s Guild of America.
Tributes to Robert Butler
Full obituary: Variety
