Robert Butler


Director, Producer

About

Also Known As
Bob Butler, Robert Stanton Butler
Birth Place
Los Angeles, California, USA
Born
November 16, 1927

Biography

Although Robert Butler is probably best known for his television work on the cult science-fiction show "Star Trek" (he directed the original pilot "The Cage" and the two-part "Menagerie"), he is also fondly remembered by nostalgic moviegoers for his two live-action Walt Disney movies, "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Barefoot Detective," both starring a teenage Kurt Russell. But...

Biography

Although Robert Butler is probably best known for his television work on the cult science-fiction show "Star Trek" (he directed the original pilot "The Cage" and the two-part "Menagerie"), he is also fondly remembered by nostalgic moviegoers for his two live-action Walt Disney movies, "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" and "The Barefoot Detective," both starring a teenage Kurt Russell. Butler also directed the Disney comedy/western film "Hot Lead and Cold Feet," starring Don Knotts and Darren McGavin. But his legacy as a director resides with the many television shows he has worked on, with some of the most notable ones including the gloriously campy "Batman" of the 1960s, the original "The Untouchables," two episodes of the celebrated suspense anthology "The Twilight Zone" (the racially charged "The Encounter" and the ventriloquist shocker "Caesar and Me"), and the original versions of such enduring franchises as the "The Fugitive" and "Mission: Impossible." Although the '60s and '70s were his true heyday, Butler enjoyed an'80s success or two as well, including the seminal gritty cop show "Hill Street Blues." As the turn of the new millennium approached and and went by, the director's television efforts became increasingly more sporadic and he took to helming such occasional feature films as the white-knuckle airplane triller "Turbulence."

Life Events

Videos

Movie Clip

Hot Lead And Cold Feet -- (1978) -- (Movie Clip) Them English Names Are All Greek To Me Missionary Eli Bloodshy (Jim Dale) and orphan friends (Debbie Lytton, Michael Sharrett), come west to claim his inheritance, meet schoolteacher Jenny (Karen Valentine), while Mansfield (John Williams), valet to the deceased, meets the sheriff (Don Knotts), early in Disney’s Hot Lead And Cold Feet, 1978.
Hot Lead And Cold Feet -- (1978) -- (Movie Clip) How Come There's Two Of Me? Everybody is baffled as the gunfighter brother Billy meets his previously unknown missionary brother Eli (both played by Jim Dale), the mayor (Darren McGavin) of the town owned by their deceased father looking to explain the situation, in Disney’s Hot Lead And Cold Feet, 1978.
Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The -- (Movie Clip) Mind Meld A big special-effects scene ensues when student Dexter (Kurt Russell) attempts to install a part in his college's dodgy donated computer during a thunderstorm in Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, 1970.
Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The -- (Movie Clip) Got To Modernize! Dexter (Kurt Russell) and his band of under-achieving students have bugged Dean Higgins (Joe Flynn) and the Board of Regents meeting in Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, 1970.
Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The -- (Movie Clip) Applejack Rainbow Dexter (Kurt Russell) and the kids visit shady entrepeneur A.J. Arno (Cesar Romero) and ask him to donate his computer to their college in Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, 1970.
Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The -- (Movie Clip) Examination Dean Higgins (Joe Flynn) and Professor Quigley (William Schallert) discover that Dexter (Kurt Russell) has uploaded the memory of a gambler's computer in Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, 1970.
Barefoot Executive, The -- (Movie Clip) Mother Carey's Chickens Steve (Kurt Russell) discovers that Raffles the chimp, newly adopted by his girlfriend Jenn (Heather North), has strong preferences about TV in The Barefoot Executive, 1971.
Barefoot Executive, The -- (Movie Clip) He's Gone Mad! Steve (Kurt Russell) hastens to make sure his rival Roger (John Ritter) doesn't discover that Raffles the chimp is a TV programming genius in Disney's The Barefoot Executive, 1971.
Barefoot Executive, The -- (Movie Clip) Abe Lincoln's Doctor's Dog Mail-room staffer Steve (Kurt Russell) ambushes network executive Wilbanks (Joe Flynn), and his chauffeur Mertons (Wally Cox), with a programming pitch in The Barefoot Executive, 1971.

Bibliography