George Butler, Boswell of Bodybuilding in Photography and Film, Dies at 78


George ButlerAn adventurous filmmaker who masterfully explored the bodybuilding subculture in “Pumping Iron,” a documentary centering on the then little-known Arnold Schwarzenegger, died October 21 at his home in Holderness, NH. He was 78 years old.

His son, Desmond, said the cause was pneumonia.

“Pumping Iron” (1977) took the British-born Mr. Butler on an eclectic journey as a documentarian: he went on to direct films about Ernest Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica; endangered Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans, a tidal mangrove forest in India and Bangladesh; exploration of Mars by robotic vehicle; and his longtime friend John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.

“She said movies should take people not just to places they haven’t been, but places they couldn’t even imagine,” Caroline Alexander, a longtime friend and business partner and author of five documentaries, said by phone.

Mr. Butler’s best-known film, popular documentary (with some screenplay sequences) “Pumping Iron” co-directed with Robert Fiore. He is credited with helping bodybuilders escape their niche as physical curiosities and gain recognition as serious athletes.

Mr Butler told The Daily News of New York in 1977 that there is a “myth” that bodybuilders are “uncoordinated, stupid, narcissistic muscle heads”, but that they are actually “adept at other sports—some at a professional level.”

“Pumping Iron” focused on a group of bodybuilders who trained at Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach, California, and competed in 1975, some for the Mr. Universe title and some for Mr. Olympia in Pretoria, South Africa. The movie is five times Mr. He drew particular attention to the intense rivalry between Mr. Schwarzenegger, who became Olympia, and the shy Lou Ferrigno, who would soon star in the television series “The Incredible Hulk.”

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised “Pomping Iron” for treating bodybuilders “with neither affection nor sarcasm, but with a determined, cold detachment – even if they themselves are overtly manipulative – which makes it slippery, shrewdly calculated, immensely fun and an enjoyable experience.”

George Tyssen Butler was born on October 12, 1942 in Chester, England, and grew up in Wales, Somalia, Kenya and Jamaica. His father, Desmond, was an Irish-born British Army officer who later ran a plantation and Avis rental car dealership in Jamaica. His mother, Dorothy (West) Butler, owned a catering business and rental properties in Jamaica.

George’s sense of adventure was revived in Somalia, where he hunted for dinner with his father and drank camel milk. While living in Jamaica, he lifted weights at a gym in Montego Bay.

She graduated from the Groton School in Massachusetts, then earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of North Carolina and a master’s in creative writing from Hollins College (now University) in Roanoke, Va. Then it joined Vista (now AmeriCorps Vista). The national service program in Detroit started a community newspaper here and began taking pictures of the city after the devastating riots.

Her friendship with future Massachusetts senator and secretary of state, Mr. Kerry, began in 1964 when they met at a party. He accompanied Mr. Kerry when he gave emotional testimony against the Vietnam War to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 and was the editor and photographer of Mr. Kerry’s book, “The New Soldier,” about the protests in Washington by the Vietnam organization. Veterans Against War.

Mr. Butler’s interest in bodybuilding began in the early 1970s when he photographed the Life and The Village Voice competitions. He and Charles Gaines, Author of “Stay Hungry” In 1972, a bodybuilding novel came together for a Sports Illustrated article about a competition in Holyoke, Mass. At another event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Mr. Butler watched Mr. Schwarzenegger pose for an ecstatic audience.

“When he came out for it, the crowd exploded with applause and cheers like I’ve never seen before” Mr Butler told Muscular Development magazine: in 2016.

Mr. Gaines said in a phone interview: “George and I were similarly impressed with Arnold, who we thought would be more than a bodybuilding champion. We decided the subject was interesting enough to merit a book.”

Their book “Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding” (1974) was a success – selling 258,000 copies in 1982 – and led to the making of the documentary by Mr. Butler and Mr. Gaines. scenario.

But when potential investors were shown the 10-minute test film shot by Mr. Butler and featuring Mr. Schwarzenegger, the answer was silence. He told Muscular Development that playwright Romulus Linney stood up and said, “If you make a movie about this Arnold person, we’ll make you laugh on 42nd Street.”

Mr. Butler raised several thousand dollars from attendees at a bodybuilding exhibition he held at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan, which featured Mr. Schwarzenegger and others, and collected the rest from various other sources, including his mother-in-law.

In a statement after Mr Butler’s death, Mr Schwarzenegger praised him for his “wonderful eye” and said he was “a force for the bodybuilding sport and fitness challenge”.

Mr. Butler’s other films include “In the Blood” (1989) and “The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic” in 1909, which connects Teddy Roosevelt’s hunt for big game to a modern-day expedition in Africa by Mr. Butler and his son Tyssen. is located. Adventure” (2000). Among his other projects was a book of photographs of Mr. Schwarzenegger.

Shackleton adapted his movie for the Imax screen as “Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure” (2001), adding an extra element by assigning three climbers to follow the expedition’s overland route.

He produced and directed it in 2004. “Going Up the River” About Mr. Kerry’s Navy service and anti-war activism, where Mr. Butler drew some of the 6,000 photographs Mr. Kerry had taken.

He went on to make a second Imax film, “Roving Mars” (2006), about the journey of two rovers sent by NASA to explore the planet and the images they transmitted back to Earth; “The Lord God Bird” (2008), which chronicles the futile search of the rare ivory-billed woodpecker, which was declared extinct last month; and “Tiger, Tiger” following the big cat guardian Alan Rabinowitz, diagnosed with leukemia, to the Sundarbans. Mr. Butler was battling the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease while making “Tiger, Tiger.”

The Imax version of “Tiger, Tiger” is expected to hit the market next year.

“Alan was probably on his last call,” said his partner, Ms. Alexander, “doing his best for this animal under the death penalty.” Mr Rabinowitz died in 2018.

In addition to Ms. Alexander and her two sons, Mr. Butler has a surviving brother, Richard, and six grandchildren. His marriage to Victoria Leiter ended in divorce.

Mr. Butler hadn’t finished bodybuilding after “Pomping Iron.” In 1985’s “Pumping Iron II: The Women” she focused on female bodybuilders like Rachel McLish and Bev Francis.

Gloria Steinem, in her book “Moving Beyond Words” (1994), described the film as “an historic mind-blowing” and said it “started a revolution that is still ongoing in our ideas about women’s bodies.”



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