Frank Russell Butler (December 28, 1889 – June 10, 1967) was an American film and theatre actor and later screenwriter, born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England to parents Frederick Butler and Sarah Ann Hedges. His son, Hugo Butler, also became a Hollywood screenwriter.

Career

Theatre

His theatre career included two appearances (1920s–1930s) in Broadway-theatre productions in New York City.

Film work

Butler's film career started with silent films in the early 1920s. He appeared in almost fifty films and wrote more than sixty screenplays. This included the 1937 film Champagne Waltz.

Awards

He co-won, with Frank Cavett, the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Going My Way (1944). Butler had earlier been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) twice in the same year, for Road to Morocco and Wake Island, both released in 1942.

Partial filmography