Introduction
Brian Geoffrey Hutton (January 1, 1935 – August 19, 2014) was an American actor and film director whose notable credits are for the action films Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Kelly's Heroes (1970).
Acting career
Hutton was born in New York City and studied at the Actors Studio. He had a brief acting career between 1954 and 1962, including an appearance as an army deserter in the episode "Custer" in Gunsmoke (series 2, 1956). He played a young gunslinger, Billy Benson in season 2, episode 4 of "The Rifleman".He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason in 1957: as Rod Gleason in "The Case of the Sulky Girl" and as a parking attendant in "The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink." His last television appearance was in the series Archer in 1975.
In 1958, Hutton played a young gunfighter named The Kid in the episode "Yampa Crossing" of the western series Sugarfoot. The following year, he portrayed a remorseful defendant on trial for causing a traffic death in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (the episode "Your Witness").
Director
Hutton made his debut as a director in 1965 with Wild Seed. For Where Eagles Dare, he tweaked the screenplay by Alistair MacLean to suit the acting styles of Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. He also directed Eastwood for Kelly's Heroes. He then directed Elizabeth Taylor in Zee and Co. (1972) and Night Watch (1973).
Later life and death
After Night Watch came out in 1973, Hutton stopped making films for seven years because he lost his enthusiasm for it.
It wasn’t something I wanted to do to begin with – not my life’s work... When I finished the second Elizabeth Taylor picture I thought, ‘Well, what am I wasting my life doing this for?' I mean, a gorilla could have made those movies. All I had to do was yell ‘Action’ and ‘Cut-Print’ because everybody was doing what they had to do anyway.
— Brian G. Hutton
He came back and made two more movies and then retired from making films altogether in the 1980s and began working in real-estate. He died in Los Angeles, California on August 19, 2014 at age 79, a week after suffering a heart attack. He was survived by his wife.