Oscar-nominated Cinematographer Wilmer C. Butler, whose work included a series of landmark films such as The Conversation (1974), Jaws (1975) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), has died. He was 101. The American Society of Cinematographers confirmed Butler’s passing.
Butler was the ASC’s most senior member, and he had a resume to match. He worked with directors such as Philip Kaufman, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Richard Donner, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Ivan Reitman, Tobe Hooper, Joseph Sargent, Mike Nichols, John Cassavetes and Steven Spielberg.
Friedkin convinced Butler to be the cinematographer on The People vs. Paul Crump, a documentary about a prisoner slated for execution in Illinois. The project got Crump’s death sentence commuted.
He got his start in features with Philip Kaufman’s 1967 film Fearless Frank. Two years later, Friedkin introduced Butler to Francis Ford Coppola, with whom he shot The Rain People before going on to...
Butler was the ASC’s most senior member, and he had a resume to match. He worked with directors such as Philip Kaufman, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Richard Donner, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Ivan Reitman, Tobe Hooper, Joseph Sargent, Mike Nichols, John Cassavetes and Steven Spielberg.
Friedkin convinced Butler to be the cinematographer on The People vs. Paul Crump, a documentary about a prisoner slated for execution in Illinois. The project got Crump’s death sentence commuted.
He got his start in features with Philip Kaufman’s 1967 film Fearless Frank. Two years later, Friedkin introduced Butler to Francis Ford Coppola, with whom he shot The Rain People before going on to...
- 4/6/2023
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
Emmy-winning cinematographer Bill Butler, who was Oscar nominated for shooting “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and was also the D.P. on Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws,” died Wednesday, according to the American Society of Cinematographers. He was 101.
Spielberg remembered Butler in a statement, saying, “On ‘Jaws,’ Bill Butler was the bedrock on that rickety, rocking boat called the Orca. He was the only calm in the middle of that storm, and as we went into a battle against nature and technology that wore both of us down, the audience eventually won the war. Bill’s outlook on life was pragmatic, philosophical and so very patient, and I owe him so much for his steadfast and creative contributions to the entire look of ‘Jaws.’”
In addition to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Butler served as d.p. on a number of other high-profile films of the 1970s, including Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation,...
Spielberg remembered Butler in a statement, saying, “On ‘Jaws,’ Bill Butler was the bedrock on that rickety, rocking boat called the Orca. He was the only calm in the middle of that storm, and as we went into a battle against nature and technology that wore both of us down, the audience eventually won the war. Bill’s outlook on life was pragmatic, philosophical and so very patient, and I owe him so much for his steadfast and creative contributions to the entire look of ‘Jaws.’”
In addition to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Butler served as d.p. on a number of other high-profile films of the 1970s, including Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation,...
- 4/6/2023
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
William Link, a writer and producer known for co-creating “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote,” died of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles on Sunday, his niece confirmed to Variety. He was 87.
Over the course of Link’s decades-long television career, he became known for working alongside screenwriter and producer Richard Levinson. The duo collaborated on a number of projects, including both “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
Steven Spielberg, who directed the first episode of “Columbo,” paid tribute to Link on Tuesday.
“Bill’s truly good nature always inspired me to do good work for a man who, along with Dick Levinson, was a huge part of what became my own personal film school on the Universal lot,” Spielberg said in a statement. “Bill was one of my favorite and most patient teachers and, more than anything, I learned so much from him about the true anatomy of a plot. I...
Over the course of Link’s decades-long television career, he became known for working alongside screenwriter and producer Richard Levinson. The duo collaborated on a number of projects, including both “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
Steven Spielberg, who directed the first episode of “Columbo,” paid tribute to Link on Tuesday.
“Bill’s truly good nature always inspired me to do good work for a man who, along with Dick Levinson, was a huge part of what became my own personal film school on the Universal lot,” Spielberg said in a statement. “Bill was one of my favorite and most patient teachers and, more than anything, I learned so much from him about the true anatomy of a plot. I...
- 12/29/2020
- by Eli Countryman
- Variety Film + TV
Prolific television writer-producer William Link, co-creator of classic TV series including Columbo and Murder She Wrote among others, died Sunday, December 27 of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles, his wife, Margery Nelson, told Deadline. He was 87.
Link was born in Elkins Park, Pa, a suburb of Philadelphia, on December 15, 1933.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Link was best known for his collaboration with the late Richard Levinson. The two – who first met at the age of 14 and began collaborating almost immediately on stories, radio scripts, and dramas – saw television’s potential to capture the current scene and contribute to the national discussion about such subjects as race relations, student unrest, and gun violence.
Co-created by Link and Levinson, Columbo, starring Peter Falk as LAPD homicide detective Columbo aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978. The character and show popularized the inverted detective story format, which begins by showing the commission of the crime and its perpetrator.
Link was born in Elkins Park, Pa, a suburb of Philadelphia, on December 15, 1933.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Link was best known for his collaboration with the late Richard Levinson. The two – who first met at the age of 14 and began collaborating almost immediately on stories, radio scripts, and dramas – saw television’s potential to capture the current scene and contribute to the national discussion about such subjects as race relations, student unrest, and gun violence.
Co-created by Link and Levinson, Columbo, starring Peter Falk as LAPD homicide detective Columbo aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978. The character and show popularized the inverted detective story format, which begins by showing the commission of the crime and its perpetrator.
- 12/29/2020
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
-- "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son" (Free Press), by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez with Hope Edelman: First see their movie, then read their book.
Their movie is "The Way," a crowd-pleasing indie production starring actor Martin Sheen and written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez. In the film, a father tries to connect with a deceased son by taking up his spiritual pilgrimage to northern Spain.
Their book is "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son," an equally engaging dual memoir by Sheen and Estevez that explores their lives and their intense relationship. Punctuated with humor and unusual frankness, the emotional highs and lows they share will resonate with fathers and sons.
One of 10 children raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio, young Ramon Estevez found lots of love at home but little support for his ambition to perform for a living.
Their movie is "The Way," a crowd-pleasing indie production starring actor Martin Sheen and written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez. In the film, a father tries to connect with a deceased son by taking up his spiritual pilgrimage to northern Spain.
Their book is "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son," an equally engaging dual memoir by Sheen and Estevez that explores their lives and their intense relationship. Punctuated with humor and unusual frankness, the emotional highs and lows they share will resonate with fathers and sons.
One of 10 children raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio, young Ramon Estevez found lots of love at home but little support for his ambition to perform for a living.
- 5/22/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
-- "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son" (Free Press), by Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez with Hope Edelman: First see their movie, then read their book.
Their movie is "The Way," a crowd-pleasing indie production starring actor Martin Sheen and written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez. In the film, a father tries to connect with a deceased son by taking up his spiritual pilgrimage to northern Spain.
Their book is "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son," an equally engaging dual memoir by Sheen and Estevez that explores their lives and their intense relationship. Punctuated with humor and unusual frankness, the emotional highs and lows they share will resonate with fathers and sons.
One of 10 children raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio, young Ramon Estevez found lots of love at home but little support for his ambition to perform for a living.
Their movie is "The Way," a crowd-pleasing indie production starring actor Martin Sheen and written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez. In the film, a father tries to connect with a deceased son by taking up his spiritual pilgrimage to northern Spain.
Their book is "Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son," an equally engaging dual memoir by Sheen and Estevez that explores their lives and their intense relationship. Punctuated with humor and unusual frankness, the emotional highs and lows they share will resonate with fathers and sons.
One of 10 children raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio, young Ramon Estevez found lots of love at home but little support for his ambition to perform for a living.
- 5/22/2012
- by AP
- Aol TV.
Martin Sheen is a treasure. Now 71 years of age, it's impossible to look at him and not think of Kit, the polite murderer he played in Terrence Malick's Badlands, or Willard, the military assassin in Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now, or the creep who menaced Jodie Foster in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, or his performances in memorable movies made directly for television (The Execution of Private Slovik, The California Kid, The Missiles of October). He was charm and evil incarnate in David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone. When he returned to television as President Jed Bartlet in The West Wing, he left another mark as the kind of political leader who everyone dreams existed in real life. And he was a vital...
- 10/6/2011
- Screen Anarchy
Comedy Central just announced that their next annual Roast will feature none other than 2011′s most ubiquitous tigerblooded human-shaped-chaos-factory, Charlie Sheen. I’m a big fan of all the Comedy Central Roasts, but this time, I’m legitimately concerned — seemingly every Charlie Sheen joke that could’ve ever possibly been made was already Tweeted seventy times in the past couple months, and if everyone’s already sick of “Winning” jokes now, I can’t imagine we’ll be back in the mood for them by the time September rolls around. Because there’s no Charlie Sheen jokes left, we’ve scoured the slightly more obscure corners of Charlie Sheen’s IMDb page to come up with this list of 10 Charlie Sheen Roast Jokes That Haven’t Been Made Yet: 1. Who could forget Charlie Sheen’s portrayal of “Peter” in the 1990 epic Courage Mountain? That movie was huger than Lisa Lampanelli’s vagina!
- 7/5/2011
- by Dan Hopper
- BestWeekEver
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