Budd Boetticher(1916-2001)
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Brilliant, distinguished American director, particularly of Westerns,
whose simple, bleak style disguises a complex artistic temperament. The
adopted son of a wealthy hardware retailer, Boetticher attended Culver Military
Academy and Ohio State University, where he excelled in football and
boxing.
Following his schooling Boetticher, something of an adventurer, went
to Mexico and transformed himself into a formidable professional matador.
His school chum, Hal Roach Jr., used his film connections to get Boetticher
minor jobs in the film industry, most importantly the job of technical
adviser on the bullfighting romance Blood and Sand (1941). By studying the work of
the film's director, Rouben Mamoulian, and from editor Barbara McLean, he gained a
thorough grounding in filmmaking.
After an apprenticeship as a studio messenger and assistant director,
he was given a chance to direct, first retakes of scenes from other
directors' films, then his own low-budget projects. For producer
John Wayne Boetticher filmed his first prominent work, a fictionalization
of his own experiences in Mexico, Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), although the work was
re-edited without Boetticher's approval by his mentor, John Ford (the
director's cut was restored several decades later).
Following a number of sprightly but inconsequential programmers in the
early 1950s, Boetticher formed a partnership with actor Randolph Scott which,
with the participation of producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy, led to a
string of the most memorable Western films of the 1950s, including 7 Men from Now (1956)
and The Tall T (1957). He directed a sharp gangster film, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), then, with his
wife Debra Paget, left for Mexico to film a monumental documentary
on famed matador Carlos Arruza. The travail of the next seven years, which Boetticher detailed in his
autobiography "When In Disgrace", included near-fatal illness, divorce,
incarceration in jails, hospitals and an insane asylum, and the
accidental deaths of Arruza and most of the film crew. The film, Arruza (1972), was both an exquisite documentary and a testament to
Boetticher's immutable drive. Though he returned to Hollywood to form a
partnership with Audie Murphy, they completed only one film together before
Murphy's death in 1971.
Since then Boetticher completed another documentary and had
announced several feature films in preparation. He died at age
85.
whose simple, bleak style disguises a complex artistic temperament. The
adopted son of a wealthy hardware retailer, Boetticher attended Culver Military
Academy and Ohio State University, where he excelled in football and
boxing.
Following his schooling Boetticher, something of an adventurer, went
to Mexico and transformed himself into a formidable professional matador.
His school chum, Hal Roach Jr., used his film connections to get Boetticher
minor jobs in the film industry, most importantly the job of technical
adviser on the bullfighting romance Blood and Sand (1941). By studying the work of
the film's director, Rouben Mamoulian, and from editor Barbara McLean, he gained a
thorough grounding in filmmaking.
After an apprenticeship as a studio messenger and assistant director,
he was given a chance to direct, first retakes of scenes from other
directors' films, then his own low-budget projects. For producer
John Wayne Boetticher filmed his first prominent work, a fictionalization
of his own experiences in Mexico, Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), although the work was
re-edited without Boetticher's approval by his mentor, John Ford (the
director's cut was restored several decades later).
Following a number of sprightly but inconsequential programmers in the
early 1950s, Boetticher formed a partnership with actor Randolph Scott which,
with the participation of producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy, led to a
string of the most memorable Western films of the 1950s, including 7 Men from Now (1956)
and The Tall T (1957). He directed a sharp gangster film, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), then, with his
wife Debra Paget, left for Mexico to film a monumental documentary
on famed matador Carlos Arruza. The travail of the next seven years, which Boetticher detailed in his
autobiography "When In Disgrace", included near-fatal illness, divorce,
incarceration in jails, hospitals and an insane asylum, and the
accidental deaths of Arruza and most of the film crew. The film, Arruza (1972), was both an exquisite documentary and a testament to
Boetticher's immutable drive. Though he returned to Hollywood to form a
partnership with Audie Murphy, they completed only one film together before
Murphy's death in 1971.
Since then Boetticher completed another documentary and had
announced several feature films in preparation. He died at age
85.