David Butler

David Butler (1960-2021). A bilingual (English and Afrikaans) actor for stage, TV and film.

Biography

He trained to be an actor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

David passed away on 27 May 2021 after having been diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2020. He was married to Kate, a Communications Manager, and the couple have four children.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He made his theatre debut in 1983 in the play Another Country at the Baxter and Market theatres. Other highlights from the theatre are the plays Skyf, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Market Theatre, 1989), Scorched Earth (Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1989), Shakespeare's Macbeth by Heiner Müller in 1989, The Great Gatsby, Cock and Bull Story, Anatomie Titus, Old Boys (1998), Comrades Arms, Funeral March of a Marionette, Generaal Mannetjies Mentz , As You Like It, Cider with Rosie, and his one-man show A Touch of Madness, about the life of Herman Charles Bosman, which has played across South Africa to great acclaim.

Other productions include Die Bram Fischer Wals (2013), Cock-Ups, Cock and Bull Story, Shakespeare's Macbeth, Tom Paine, The Insect Play, A Tale of Two Cities, Ghetto, The Good Soldier Svejk, The Twilight of the Golds, Sarcophagus, Street-Woman, The Shadrack Affair, What Annette Said In Her Sleep Last Night, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Marcus Brutus, Prophet of the Waterberg, Up 'n' Under.

He also made his television debut in 1983, acting in the SABC drama The Canterville Ghost. Since then he has appeared in over 80 other theatre productions and in numerous television and film roles. These include roles in Egoli: Place of Gold, The Game, Rhodes (BBC mini-series), To the Ends of the Earth, The Triangle (Sci Fi Channel mini-series), Timber, Shado's, Snitch, Generations, Binnelanders, Soul City and Life is Wild (2007),, The Prisoner (2009) - as well as guest appearances on many other television shows.