Background
Butler"s pre-career days were spent in the United States working for his father, William Butler, who worked in films as an optical effects director
Butler"s pre-career days were spent in the United States working for his father, William Butler, who worked in films as an optical effects director
He moved to England in the mid 1930s and landed his first independent job with the London Films working for the Hungarian-born producer/director Alexander Korda"s chartbuster film Things to Come (1936). His first stint was to do films called The Manitoba Who Could Work Miracles and Fire Over England. What worked wonders for him was the innovative idea of introducing "blue-screen travelling matte process" in special effects, which he developed with his colleagues and implemented it in the Academy Award winning film The Thief of Bagdad in 1940.
Butler then worked for Warner Brothers, and did special effects for Casablanca.
After the end of World World War II, he worked for Columbia Pictures on films such as Gilda, The Lady From Shanghai and The Caine Mutiny. He retired in 1973 after his last film called Charley Varrick.