Robert Butler, the co-creator of “Remington Steele” and a veteran tv director who labored on such collection as “Hill Road Blues,” “Star Trek” and “Batman,” died Nov. 3 in Los Angeles. He was 95.
Butler’s profession spanned almost 5 a long time, throughout which he directed many notable collection, together with “Hennesey,” “Star Trek,” “Batman,” “The Dick Van Dyke Present,” “Bonanza,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gunsmoke,” “Hawaii 5-O” and extra. He gained three Primetime Emmy Awards: two for “The Blue Knight” in 1974 and the opposite for “Hill Road Blues” in 1981. He additionally obtained Emmy nominations for episodes of “Moonlighting,” “Sirens” and “Lois & Clark The Adventures of Superman.”
Butler and Michael Gleason co-created “Remington Steele,” starring Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist, which ran from 1982 to 1987 on NBC. Butler directed 5 episodes of the detective procedural collection between 1982 and 1983, together with the pilot.
He additionally directed a number of characteristic movies and TV motion pictures, together with “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t,” “The Barefoot Govt,” “Scandalous John” and Disney’s “The Pc Wore Tennis Footwear.”
Butler was born on Nov. 16, 1927, in Hollywood to insurance coverage salesman Edward Butler and Bea Olson, an elementary faculty instructor. After graduating from College Excessive College, Butler studied at UCLA, joined the Military Floor Forces Band on the finish of WWII and, in 1951, earned a level in English from the college.
In 1959, Butler joined the Administrators Guild of America, the place he served 11 consecutive phrases on the DGA Nationwide Board beginning in 1985 and different management roles. The DGA honored Butler with the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award in 2001, together with the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for distinguished achievement in tv course in 2015.
“Few administrators have modified the face of tv as a lot as Bob did — his impression on the medium is really immeasurable and this loss to our Guild is deeply felt,” DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter stated in an announcement. “Relaxed in any style, Bob’s pilots established the appear and feel of a number of seminal collection together with ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ ‘Batman’ and ‘Star Trek.’ His groundbreaking work on ‘Hill Road Blues’ delivered to life the grit and actuality of an city precinct by coupling his distinctive visible fashion with evocative performances he coaxed from an incomparable solid, perpetually altering the trajectory and elegance of episodic procedurals.”
Glatter added, “Bob’s legacy will reside on within the recollections of the numerous administrators he influenced and mentored, and the numerous viewers who laughed and cheered alongside together with his distinctive work. Our deepest condolences to his household and the numerous Administrators and Directorial staff members who knew and cherished him.”
Butler is survived by his spouse Adrienne Hepburn, his son and daughter, and his grandsons Rainer and Liam.