Arthur “Buddy” Botham, who served as a cinematographer on The Dukes of Hazzard and handled second-unit shooting on films including Blake Edwards’ Skin Deep and John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned (1995), has died. He was 88.
Botham died June 26 at his home in Woodland Hills, his daughter Julia Bergeron announced.
Botham also worked on several Stephen J. Cannell-produced series, from The A-Team, Hardcastle and McCormick and Hunter to Riptide, Stingray, Sonny Spoon and Stone, and he was a generator operator on James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) and Bill Lawrence’s Scrubs.
Born in Chicago on March 19, 1935, Arthur Ronald Botham joined the Chicago Stage Guild at age 21 and starred in Uncle Vanya and other productions. After a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps as a helicopter repairman, he returned to Chicago, resumed acting and became a cinematographer.
As the in-house director of photography for Encyclopedia Britannica, he shot dozens of educational films and traveled around the world. He braved an ice storm while standing on a glacier, avoided hammerhead sharks while underwater near the Galapagos Islands and shot from the open door of a helicopter.
In addition to Village of the Damned (1995), Skin Deep (1989) and another Edwards’ film, Sunset (1988), Botham worked on features including Steven Spielberg’s 1941 (1979), Roger Spottiswoode’s Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) and Tim Hunter’s The Maker (1997).
A member of the Television Academy, the DGA, SAG, IBEW Local 40 and the International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600), he also shot music videos, including one for Frank Sinatra and Quincy Jones, and commercials featuring the likes of Joe Namath and the Harlem Globetrotters.
He also kept acting, showing on up Scrubs and in the films Winterhawk (1975) and Killer’s Delight (1978), often using his stage name, Arthur St. Joseph.
Survivors include his children, Kathleen, Julia, Eileen, Arthur and Kevin; six grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. His wife of nearly 63 years, Theresa, died in June 2022.
A funeral is set for 10 a.m. on Aug. 7 at St. Monica Catholic Church in Santa Monica. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation.
Source: Hollywood
