David Butler

Director

About

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Also Known As

David Wayne Butler

Birth Place

San Francisco, California, USA

Born

December 17, 1894

Died

June 14, 1979

Biography

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Beginning his career as an actor onscreen and onstage, David Butler spent the majority of his four-decade career as a director, working in both television and film, most notably on the classic family comedy series "Leave It to Beaver." Butler often produced and wrote the scripts for his films and was considered a hard-working, blue collar-type director. While working under contract for F...

Filmography

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C'mon, Let's Live a Little (1967)

The Right Approach (1961)

The Girl He Left Behind (1956)

Jump into Hell (1955)

The Command (1954)

Photos & Videos

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Little Colonel, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) I Ought To Kill You

Little Colonel, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) You've Captured An Entire Regiment

Biography

Beginning his career as an actor onscreen and onstage, David Butler spent the majority of his four-decade career as a director, working in both television and film, most notably on the classic family comedy series "Leave It to Beaver." Butler often produced and wrote the scripts for his films and was considered a hard-working, blue collar-type director. While working under contract for Fox, Butler was prolific, directing over 30 films in a nine-year span, including the 1934 dramedy "Bright Eyes." Butler collaborated numerous times with actor Bing Crosby, including on the adventure film "Road to Morocco" and the musical "If I Had My Way." Late in his career Butler primarily worked directing television episodes, mainly for the classic family show "Leave It to Beaver" and the Western series "The Deputy." Through the 1920s Butler acted frequently, alternating between the stage and screen, appearing in two of legendary director D.W. Griffith's World War I dramas--"The Greatest Thing in Life" and "The Girl Who Stayed at Home"--as well as the Academy Award-winning romance "7th Heaven" in 1927. Butler died of heart failure at the age of 84.

Filmography

Director (Feature Film)

C'mon, Let's Live a Little (1967)

The Right Approach (1961)

The Girl He Left Behind (1956)

Jump into Hell (1955)

The Command (1954)

King Richard and the Crusaders (1954)

April in Paris (1953)

By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953)

Calamity Jane (1953)

Where's Charley? (1952)

Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (1951)

Lullaby of Broadway (1951)

Tea for Two (1950)

The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950)

It's a Great Feeling (1949)

John Loves Mary (1949)

Look for the Silver Lining (1949)

The Story of Seabiscuit (1949)

Two Guys from Texas (1948)

My Wild Irish Rose (1947)

Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946)

The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946)

San Antonio (1945)

Shine on Harvest Moon (1944)

The Princess and the Pirate (1944)

They Got Me Covered (1943)

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)

Road to Morocco (1942)

Playmates (1941)

Caught in the Draft (1941)

You'll Find Out (1940)

If I Had My Way (1940)

East Side of Heaven (1939)

That's Right--You're Wrong (1939)

Kentucky Moonshine (1938)

Kentucky (1938)

Straight Place and Show (1938)

You're a Sweetheart (1937)

Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937)

Pigskin Parade (1936)

Captain January (1936)

White Fang (1936)

Doubting Thomas (1935)

The Littlest Rebel (1935)

The Little Colonel (1935)

Handy Andy (1934)

Bright Eyes (1934)

Have a Heart (1934)

Bottoms Up (1934)

My Weakness (1933)

Hold Me Tight (1933)

Down to Earth (1932)

Handle with Care (1932)

Business and Pleasure (1932)

A Connecticut Yankee (1931)

Delicious (1931)

High Society Blues (1930)

Just Imagine (1930)

Masked Emotions (1929)

Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (1929)

Sunnyside Up (1929)

Chasing Through Europe (1929)

Prep and Pep (1928)

Win That Girl (1928)

The News Parade (1928)

High School Hero (1927)

Cast (Feature Film)

Crucible of Horror (1971)

It's a Great Feeling (1949)

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)

7th Heaven (1927)

Nobody's Widow (1927)

The Rush Hour (1927)

Girl in the Rain (1927)

Oh, Baby (1927)

The Quarterback (1926)

"Lumpy" Goggins

Meet the Prince (1926)

The Blue Eagle (1926)

Womanpower (1926)

Mallory, the Trainer

The People vs. Nancy Preston (1925)

Private Affairs (1925)

Tracked in the Snow Country (1925)

His Majesty, Bunker Bean (1925)

The Phantom Express (1925)

The Gold Hunters (1925)

Code of the West (1925)

The Man on the Box (1925)

Bob's brother-in-law

Wages for Wives (1925)

The Plastic Age (1925)

In Hollywood With Potash and Perlmutter (1924)

The Narrow Street (1924)

The Arizona Express (1924)

Mary of the Movies (1923)

Hoodman Blind (1923)

Cause for Divorce (1923)

Poor Men's Wives (1923)

A Noise in Newboro (1923)

The Village Blacksmith (1923)

The Temple of Venus (1923)

The Hero (1923)

According to Hoyle (1922)

"Boxcar" Simmons

Conquering the Woman (1922)

The Milky Way (1922)

Bing Bang Boom (1922)

Bertram Bancroft Boom

The Wise Kid (1922)

The Sky Pilot (1921)

Girls Don't Gamble (1921)

Making the Grade (1921)

Don't Ever Marry (1920)

The County Fair (1920)

Fickle Women (1920)

Smiling All the Way (1920)

Hannibal Pillsbury

Girls Don't Gamble (1920)

The Triflers (1920)

The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919)

Upstairs and Down (1919)

The Other Half (1919)

The Pointing Finger (1919)

Bonnie, Bonnie Lassie (1919)

The Unpainted Woman (1919)

Nugget Nell (1919)

Big Hearted Jim

Better Times (1919)

Peter Van Alstyne

The Petal on the Current (1919)

The Greatest Thing in Life (1918)

Monsieur Le Bebe

Cinematography (Feature Film)

Simon, King of the Witches (1971)

The Christian Licorice Store (1971)

Director of Photography

Writer (Feature Film)

The Scarlet and the Black (1983)

From a Far Country: Pope John Paul II (1981)

You'll Find Out (1940)

If I Had My Way (1940)

That's Right--You're Wrong (1939)

East Side of Heaven (1939)

The Little Colonel (1935)

Contr to Screenplay constr

Bright Eyes (1934)

Bottoms Up (1934)

Story and Screenplay

Have a Heart (1934)

My Weakness (1933)

Handle with Care (1932)

Just Imagine (1930)

Sunnyside Up (1929)

Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (1929)

The News Parade (1928)

High School Hero (1927)

Producer (Feature Film)

Playmates (1941)

If I Had My Way (1940)

You'll Find Out (1940)

That's Right--You're Wrong (1939)

Production Companies (Feature Film)

A Connecticut Yankee (1931)

Director (Special)

Way of the West (1958)

Life Events

1918

Film acting debut in "The Greatest Thing in Life"

1927

First film as director "High School Hero"

Photo Collections

The Story of Seabiscuit - Movie Poster

Here is an original release American movie poster for The Story of Seabiscuit (1949), starring Shirley Temple and Barry Fitzgerald. This is a Half-sheet poster measuring 22" x 28".

Girl He Left Behind (1956) - Final Draft Screenplay

This is a 'Final" draft version screenplay for the 1956 WB title "The Girl He Left Behind" starring Tab Hunter. This screenplay contains some colored pages indicating that there were likely last minute changes, and that this version may still deviate slightly from the finished film.

Videos

Little Colonel, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) I Ought To Kill You After a mild opening scene establishing Kentucky “in the 70’s,” just about the whole premise, Elizabeth (Evelyn Venable) aided by Hattie McDaniel wants to elope with yankee Jack (John Lodge) who seems decent but her grandfather the colonel (Lionel Barrymore) doesn’t care, in Shirley Temple’s first film with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, The Little Colonel, 1935.

Little Colonel, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) You've Captured An Entire Regiment After the marriage of her yankee father (John Lodge) and rebel mom in the 1870’s we leap forward to introduce the star, (Shirley Temple as young Lloyd Sherman, in the year she turned 7) at a U.S. Army outpost where Robert Warwick oversees her honorary investiture, in Fox Films’ The Little Colonel, 1935.

Little Colonel, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) My Dream Of Life (a.k.a Love's Young Dream) Shirley Temple as young Lloyd has conspired with servants Hattie McDaniel and Bill Robinson to assume a dress and bonnet that belonged to her mother, and advances her scheme to soften up her grouchy ex-Confederate grandfather the colonel (Lionel Barrymore), in The Little Colonel, 1935.

Little Colonel, The (1935) -- (Movie Clip) My Old Kentucky Home Widely remarked upon especially decades later, the first inter-racial dancing couple in a Hollywood film, and Shirley Temple’s first number with her great friend Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, featuring the stair-dancing for which he nearly won a legal patent, The Little Colonel, 1935.

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) -- (Movie Clip) Blues In The Night, John Garfield Dinah Shore has just opened with the the title song, as radio host Don Wilson helps her segue to top-billed Eddie Cantor and the first big cameo, John Garfield (who co-founded the armed services pro-bono entertainment club the Hollywood Canteen, to which all the stars donated their salaries), with the Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer tune, in one of the funniest bits in the bulky Warner Bros. wartime propaganda showcase, Thank Your Lucky Stars, 1943.

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) -- (Movie Clip) They're Either Too Young Or Too Old Bette Davis (like all the Warner Bros. stars, donating her salary to the Hollywood Canteen she co-founded), delivers an original by Arthur Schwartz and Frank Loesser which earned an Academy Award nomination and became a widely recorded hit, in the variety propaganda effort Thank Your Lucky Stars, 1943, Conrad Wiedell her dance partner.

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) -- (Movie Clip) That's What You Jolly Well Get The schtick for Errol Flynn (who like the other big names, donated his $50,000 salary to the armed services benefit Hollywood Canteen) for the wartime fundraiser show-within-a-show premise of the Warner Bros. propaganda feature is an original by Arthur Schwartz and Frank Loesser, staged by Leroy Prinz, in Thank Your Lucky Stars, 1943.

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) -- (Movie Clip) You Know Who You're Talking To? S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall is the promoter with Edward Everett Horton of a fictional wartime benefit show, and they’re being driven nuts by (pretending) egomaniac star Eddie Cantor, so he doesn’t recognize Humphrey Bogart, maybe because of the impressive scruffy beard, in the Warner Bros. morale-Musical variety hit Thank Your Lucky Stars, 1943.

Tea For Two (1950) -- (Movie Clip) I Know That You Know First scene for the star, Doris Day as heiress "Nanette," with pals Jimmy (Gordon MacRae) on piano and Tommy (Gene Nelson), dance instructor, song by Jimmy Van Heusen and Irving Caesar, from Tea For Two, 1950.

You'll Find Out (1940) -- (Movie Clip) College Of Musical Knowledge Introductory schtick after a couple of staged scenes with radio listeners, RKO contract players Jeff Corey and Eleanor Lawson are the contestants as bandleader Kay Kyser does his bit based on the NBC radio hit, in the comedy-musical-horror-hybrid vehicle You'll Find Out, 1940, with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Peter Lorre.

You'll Find Out (1940) -- (Movie Clip) The Spirits Are Strongly Displeased Horror cameos and lingerie, Bela Lugosi with no prologue appears in the guest room of band leader and star Kay Kyser, then Peter Lorre lurks as New York society hostess Janis (Helen Parrish) and singer Ginny Simms take turns being disrobed, in the musical-horror-comedy You’ll Find Out, 1940.

Straight Place And Show (1938) -- (Movie Clip) With You On My Mind In the opening scenes no trace of the stars (The Ritz Brothers) but we’ve met “society horsewoman” Barbara (Phyllis Brooks) who was late for her own engagement party, and her fiancè (Richard Arlen) and his discarded admirer, Broadway’s Ethel Merman, with an original by Lew Pollack and Lew Brown, in Straight Place And Show, 1938.

Bibliography

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