Profile
From Millburn to
Norbert Leo Butz of Netflix ' s Bloodline
WRITTEN BY JO VARNISH
Two-time Tony Award winning actor Norbert Leo Butz iscurrently appearing as Kevin Rayburn inNetflix ' s Bloodline and as Dr . Byron Hale in Mercy Street on PBS . Butz sat down with us at Millburn ' s Rock ' n ' Joe ' s restaurant the day before he left tobegin shooting the final season of Bloodline in the Florida Keys .
Butz made what heterms the ‘ great migration ’ from Brooklyn to Millburn in 2000 with his then-wife and two daughters , and then moved to Maplewood in 2005 . Acomplete convert to the suburbs , hesays , “ I am single-handedly responsible for probably 25 people moving out here , friends of mine , lots ofactors and musicians . They come tovisit and look atthe square footage of your bathroom and they ’ re like “ Oh , Iwant this !” He adds : “ I love where Ilive for the great schools , the great communities , but Ialso love it as a point of departure , that Ican be in the Poconos in an hour , or on the beach in forty minutes . For our family , we can just have more spontaneity and Ilove that .”
Butz made his Broadway debut in Rent in 1996 , and went on to star in other Broadway shows including Catch Me If YouCan , Dirty Rotten Scoundrels , and Wicked .
“ Between stage jobs , Iwould always do alittle guest spot here or a small film there ,” he says , but still the transition totelevision was achal- lenge . “ On stage , you have tomake yourself larger than life , and film is just the opposite , especially when the camera gets very close up , so it took me alittle while to make friends with
COURTESY OFTOM SINGER