Was "Blade Runner" the first "director's cut" movie?

Cafe Society
1

Like the title says. I see a lot of movies released as a “director’s cut.” I was wondering if “Blade Runner” started this trend?

I know there have been films butchered by studios that directors or preservationists managed to get restored. I don’t know if they termed them “director’s cut.” The earliest usage of the term I can recall is for “Blade Runner.”

2

Depends how loosely you define the term. When some films were released opn the nascent laserdisk format, scenes that had been edited out were often restored, Aliens being the classic example, though Close Encounters of the Third Kind had a laserdisk version that was being specifically touted as “Director’s Cut” as far back as 1980.