Description:
Robert Butler was born on 16 November 1927 in Hollywood, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Remington Steele (1982), Hill Street Blues (1981) and The Blue Knight (1973). He was married to Adrienne Hepburn. He died on 3 November 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Birthday
November 16, 1927
Born In
Hollywood, California, USA
Alternative names
Lord Butler
Spouse/Ex-
Adrienne Hepburn August 17, 1957 - November 3, 2023 (his death)
Parents
Edward Michael Butler
Children
Cornelia Hepburn Butler
Trivia
Michael Zinberg credits Butler with having the ruthless, adventurous, innovative vision that produced the powerful pilot episode of Hill Street Blues (1981) that sold NBC, and network president Fred Silverman on green-lighting this landmark urban-cop series.
Quotes
[on making Hill Street Blues (1981)] I was tired of clean speeches, where people waited until others stopped talking, tired of clean shots--I didn't fucking want it. In my mind, the show came from the congestion of the material, the congestion of the characters. I remember the camera operator cleaning up shots, in the classic Hollywood style that I had begun to hate, and I had to brainwash him to let it be a mess. I wanted it messy. The trick was to make it look seemingly real, live, raunchy, congested. We jammed the streets with derelict cars and graffiti. We suggested Eastern-city crunch very well. The multiple stories added to the congestion, so I ran with it. There's a pair of people arguing here, something developing over there. My idea was that we were putting on binoculars and panning around at the people, keeping it fluid, rather than cutting. That really worked well for that series.
Nickname
Bob
