Wilmer Cable Butler was an award winning American cinematographer best known for his work on Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and three of the Rocky sequels. He invented a mechanism that allowed Steven Spielberg to film underwater. Butler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in engineering, then started his career in broadcasting at WGN-TV in Chicago, where he was a camera operator for live programs and commercials. His first film was The People vs. Paul Crump, a 1962 documen... moreWilmer Cable Butler was an award winning American cinematographer best known for his work on Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and three of the Rocky sequels. He invented a mechanism that allowed Steven Spielberg to film underwater. Butler graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in engineering, then started his career in broadcasting at WGN-TV in Chicago, where he was a camera operator for live programs and commercials. His first film was The People vs. Paul Crump, a 1962 documentary about an African American prisoner on death row who claimed his murder confession had been coerced through torture. Some of his well known films includes Raid on Entebbe and A Streetcar Named Desire, both of which won him Emmy Awards for outstanding cinematography. The Thorn Birds earned him an Emmy nomination; and The Execution of Private Slovik. He also got nomination for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He went on to work on many television shows and films working well into his 80s.
