Bill Norton

Writer and director Bill L. Norton began his professional career in 1964 with his screenplay for the obscure comedy "How to Succeed with Girls." He followed it by working in another department altogether: camera operator on the 1965 Elvis Presley musical "Girl Happy." Norton made his directorial debut on 1972's "Cisco Pike," a gritty drug drama that he also wrote, which starred Kris Kristofferson and Gene Hackman. After scripting the Peter Fonda vehicle "Outlaw Blues," Norton stepped behind the camera on the ill-advised sequel "More American Graffiti" in 1979. Into the 1980s, Norton transitioned to work as a television director, lensing episodes of the Vietnam series "Tour of Duty" and a horde of made-for-TV movies, usually crime melodramas, with titles like "Angel of Death" and "Deadly Whispers." His career in episodics grew in the 1990s and '00s, when he landed work on the popular teen show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the procedural spin-off "Law & Order," and the military drama "The Unit."