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Hugo Butler

Writer, Director, Additional Credits
Born May 4, 1914Died January 7, 1968 (53 years)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hugo D. Butler (4 May 1914 – 7 January 1968) was a Canadian born screenwriter working in Hollywood who was blacklisted by the film studios in the 1950s. Born in Calgary, Alberta, his father had acted and written scripts in silent films. Hugo Butler worked as a journalist and playwright before moving to Hollywood in 1937 where he wrote the first of his thirty-four screenplays. His work on Edison the Man (1940) led to his nomination (with Dore Schary) for the Best Writing, Original Story Academy Award.

In 1940 he married actress Jean Rouverol, later an author and screenwriter. Shortly thereafter Butler's career was interrupted when he served in the United States military during World War II.

After being blacklisted, he wrote under various pseudonyms as well as using a fellow member of the Writers Guild of America as a front to submit screenplays to the movie studios on his behalf. He and his wife went to Mexico where he worked on scripts for directors Luis Buñuel and Carlos Velo. He was a handful of blacklisted artists responsible for the Nuevo Cine movement in Mexico, according to Rebeca Shreiber's Cold War Exiles in Mexico. They did not return to the United States on a permanent basis for thirteen years.

Hugo Butler suffered from arteriosclerotic brain disease for several years before he died from a heart attack in 1968 in Hollywood, California. In 1997, the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America voted to posthumously give him official credit for scripts he had written.

He is survived by Becky Butler, Emily Butler, Mary Butler, Debbie Butler and screenwriter Michael Butler.

Known For

  • Lassie Come Home
  • The Prowler
  • A Christmas Carol
  • Robinson Crusoe
  • Sodom and Gomorrah
  • Eva
  • The Southerner
  • The Young One
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • He Ran All the Way
  • Edison, the Man
  • Autumn Leaves
  • A Woman of Distinction
  • Young Tom Edison
  • The Big Night
  • Blossoms in the Dust
  • The Legend of Lylah Clare
  • Roughshod
  • Eye Witness
  • The First Time

Filmography

1970
1968
The Legend of Lylah Clare · as Screenplay
1963
1962
Sodom and Gomorrah · as Screenplay
1962
1960
The Young One · as Screenplay
1956
1956
1954
Robinson Crusoe · as Screenplay
1954
1952
The First Time · as Screenplay
1951
The Big Night · as Screenplay
1951
He Ran All the Way · as Screenplay
1951
The Prowler · as Screenplay
1950
Eye Witness · as Screenplay
1949
Roughshod · as Screenplay
1946
Miss Susie Slagle's · as Screenplay
1946
From This Day Forward · as Screenplay
1943
Lassie Come Home · as Screenplay
1942
The Omaha Trail · as Screenplay
1942
A Yank on the Burma Road · as Screenplay
1941
1941
Barnacle Bill · as Screenplay
1940
Wyoming · as Screenplay
1940
Young Tom Edison · as Screenplay
1939
Society Lawyer · as Screenplay
1939
1938
A Christmas Carol · as Screenplay
1937
Big City · as Screenplay

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