William H. Burton (stuntman)

William H.. Burton, also known as Billy Burton, is an American stuntman, second unit director, film director, and actor.

Life and Career

Burton was born in 1944 in Culver City. His dad was a horseman and his mom raced horses, and living on a ranch had him operating machinery and driving various vehicles before he was even a teenager. He also confessed that he drove himself to high school when he had no license.

Burton started his work in the stunt business in 1965 with his first film being 1966's Beau Geste thanks to his rodeo and horse work. He later met film director and stuntman Hal Needham, who became his mentor. In 1970, Burton and Needham were among the first members of Stunts Unlimited, alongside Charlie Picerni, Sr., Alan Gibbs, Glenn Wilder, and Ronnie Rondell.

In 1997, Burton served as second unit director on the John Travolta and Nicolas Cage film Face/Off, which was directed by John Woo, which he has stated to be his favorite film that he worked on, especially with the boat chase scene in San Pedro harbor.

Burton served as stunt coordinator and second unit director for Chuck Russell on The Scorpion King, the prequel spin-off to Stephen Sommers' 1999 The Mummy remake and its 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns.

In 2019, Burton was honored with the Taurus Lifetime Achievement Award at the Taurus World Stunt Awards.

Other films he has directed second unit on include Dick Tracy, Hostage, House of Wax, I Spy, and Collateral Damage.

Filmography

Year	Title	Stunts	Second unit director	Director
1966	Beau Geste	Yes	No	Douglas Heyes
1973	Mean Streets	Yes	No	Martin Scorsese
1974	Blazing Saddles	Yes	No	Mel Brooks
1980	Smokey and the Bandit II	Yes	No	Hal Needham
1983	National Lampoon's Vacation	Yes	No	Harold Ramis
1984	The Cotton Club	Yes	No	Francis Ford Coppola
1985	Year of the Dragon	Yes	No	Michael Cimino
1986	American Justice	Yes	Yes	Gary Grillo
1987	Beverly Hills Cop II	Yes	No	Tony Scott
	Predator	Yes	No	John McTiernan
1990	Dick Tracy	Yes	Yes	Warren Beatty
1991	Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man	Yes	Yes	Simon Wincer
1993	Hard Target	Yes	Yes	John Woo
1995	Bad Boys	Yes	No	Michael Bay
1996	The Phantom	Yes	No	Simon Wincer
	Escape from L.A.	Yes	No	John Carpenter
1997	Money Talks	Yes	No	Brett Ratner
	The Postman	Yes	No	Kevin Costner
	Face/Off	No	Yes	John Woo
1998	The X-Files	Yes	Yes	Rob Bowman
	Godzilla	Yes	No	Roland Emmerich
1999	Go	Yes	No	Doug Liman
2000	The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas	Yes	No	Brian Levant
2001	American Pie 2	Yes	No	James B. Rogers
2002	The Scorpion King	Yes	Yes	Chuck Russell
	Big Fat Liar	Yes	No	Shawn Levy
	I Spy	Yes	Yes	Betty Thomas
	Collateral Damage	Yes	Yes	Andrew Davis
	XXX	Yes	No	Rob Cohen
2004	Hidalgo	Yes	No	Joe Johnston
2005	Hostage	Yes	Yes	Florent-Emilio Siri
	The 40 Year Old Virgin	Yes	No	Judd Apatow
	Domino	Yes	No	Tony Scott
	House of Wax	Yes	Yes	Jaume Collet-Serra
2007	Fracture	Yes	No	Gregory Hoblit
2008	Untraceable	Yes	No
2009	In the Electric Mist	Yes	No	Bertrand Tavernier
2011	Fright Night	Yes	No	Craig Gillespie
2012	A Thousand Words	Yes	No	Brian Robbins
2014	The Homesman	Yes	No	Tommy Lee Jones