Jaws Cinematographer Bill Butler Dead at 101

Bill Butler, the award-winning cinematographer known for his work on Jaws and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, has passed away at the age of 101. The news was broken in a statement from the American Society of Cinematographers, who revealed that Butler died on the evening of Wednesday, April 5th in Los Angeles. He is survived by his wife, Iris, and five daughters. His career also includes Grease, Child’s Play, Anaconda, and the second, third, and fourth Rocky installments. 

Born on April 7, 1921 in Cripple Creek, Colorado, Butler first got into the industry as a radio station engineer in Gary, Indiana. He later helped design and build Chicago’s ABC and WGN stations, which led to him meeting and getting a job from director William Friedkin. He broke into cinematography with Friedkin’s The People vs. Paul Crump, and later with Philip Kaufman’s Fearless Frank, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People. He subsequently moved to Los Angeles in 1970, meeting Steven Spielberg and serving as his cinematographer on two of his early films, Something Evil and Savage. Butler then became the cinematographer on Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws.

“I brought a lot of new things to the picture, such as hand-holding the camera,” Butler later said Patrick Jankiewicz’s 2015 book, Just When You Thought It Was Safe: A Jaws Companion. “In the old days of making sea pictures, they used a giant gimbal, which weighs roughly 400 pounds and is slow and hard to set up but does keep the camera level. I found, just by experimenting, that I could hand-hold the camera on an oceangoing boat and keep it level simply by using my knees. I told Steven that I had this idea about shooting the picture hand-held, and he just fainted.” 

That same year, Butler’s work on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was released. He won two Primetime Emmy Awards in his career, for 1977’s Raid on Entebbe and 1984’s television movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire. His later work included Grease, Child’s Play, Anaconda, Beethoven’s 2nd, Flipper, and Funny Money. His final film credit was 2009’s Evil Angel. He also served as an animated visual consultant on The Secret of NIMH and An American Tail. 

Our thoughts are with Butler’s family, friends, and fans at this time.