Peter Butler

BUTLER, Peter (195*-) Actor, director, playwright, singer, voice artist.

Biography

He was born in Cape Town.

Training

He completed an internship at The Globe Theatre in London, and returned as a Fellow of the International Shakespeare Society.

Career

He started off in amateur theatre on the Cape Flats and joined the Space Theatre at the age of 18. He continued to work for companies on the flats (i.a. with a company called Dream Express).

He spent seven years from 1988 as a repertory actor with The Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB) where he honed his skills and amassed several awards for his work. A bilingual professional actor, who working primarily for CAPAB and the Baxter Theatre in the 1980s-1990s. By the 1990s he was one of the senior actors of his generation in the Cape.

In 2004 he was made a Fellow of the International Globe Theatre.

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

He wrote An Evening in the Country. Also wrote other plays, including Daai Tony de Villiers ("That Tony de Villiers", which he also directed for Dream Express in 1986) and Dying Breed (1993).

As an actor productions include Aladdin (1984, Baxter Theatre), the doctor and the Auschwitz commander in Good (1990), Ralph in Dying Breed, 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore, Hair, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, King Lear, Hamlet, Kanna hy kô Hystoe (2004), Jocasta Rising (2004) and Twaalfde Nag (2005).

Peter played the role of Fahiem Hendricks in the fourth episode of the M-Net docu-drama series Crimes Uncovered, in 2012, which dramatized the murder of Taliep Petersen. TV work includes the mini-series Poseidon Adventure and the popular soap opera 7de Laan. He has also appeared in such television series as Heartlines and Charlie Jade and was the host of the nature documentary series Shoreline.

Film work includes Hangman's Daughter, Pirates on the Plain, Ernest in the Army, Sexy Girls and Sudan.

Butler has acted in a number of films and TV movies including From Dusk Till Dawn 3, Shark Attack 2 (2001), Boy Called Twist (2004), The Poseidon Adventure (2005), Mercenary for Justice (2006), The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006) and Lost City Raiders (2008).

He is best known as the "Voice of E" on free-to-air channel e.tv, voicing channel promos for a number of years.

Awards, etc

He won a number of Kellerprinz awards (for acting in 1978 and 1979, and for best original text – An Evening in the Country at the House of Representatives One-Act Play Festival in 1984?*).

The Dying Breed (1993 - Fleur du Cap for Best Supporting Actor), 'Tis a Pity She's a Whore (1994 - Fleur du Cap for Best Supporting Actor), Vasques (Fleur du Cap Best Supporting Actor, 1994),

In 2004 he was awarded one of the two Shakespeare's Globe International Artistic Residences given to South Africans.

Sources

http://www.tvsa.co.za/actorprofile.asp?actorid=10316

The Citizen 4 March 1995.

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