Les Butler

Editor Les Butler follows in the footsteps of his father Bill in more ways than one. After years of working as an assistant, Bill's big break came when he was asked to replace an editor that director Melvin Frank was having a disagreement with while in production on the 1968 comedy "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell." Similarly, Les, who'd entered the film business by assisting his father in the 1980s, was working on the period crime show "The Untouchables" when he was given a chance to assemble a sequence by himself. The show's producers were so pleased with the results they had Butler replace one of the main cutters, and his career as a full-fledged editor grew from there. Butler edited several pilots that weren't picked to become regular series, including the 1998 cult detective comedy "Where's Marlowe?," which was converted into a feature film after it failed to make it to the air. In 1996, he started working on the crime-fighting action fantasy "Viper," about a car that could transform into a high-powered weapon. Butler lucked onto a regular gig in 2003 when he joined the crew of teen drama "One Tree Hill." In 2005, he advanced to the director's chair for the show, a role he served for 9 episodes. "One Tree Hill" ran for eight years and 174 episodes, with Butler working on 78 of them in a variety of capacities including editor, director, and producer.