Tony Butala

Anthony Francis Butala was born on November 20 in Sharon, Pennsylvania. Most sources, including Contemporary Musicians and the group's own death announcement (which said he died days before his 86th birthday), give the year as 1940; some outlets, including WKBN, reported his age as 87, implying 1938. He was the eighth of eleven children of John George Butala, a Westinghouse laborer, and Mary Ann (Ference) Butala, a nurse, both first-generation Croatian Americans. The family lived in an old five-room house and were so poor that Tony shared a bed with three brothers until he was ten. His father sang in the church choir and his mother played the organ, and the family harmonized together on their porch. He spent much of his boyhood on his grandparents' farm and shot his first deer at the age of 12, later explaining that hunting then was done for survival rather than sport. He began singing professionally as a young child, appearing on the KDKA radio show "Starlets on Parade" in Pittsburgh and at local Knights of Columbus and Elks clubs.

When his mother was called to California to help relatives who had fallen ill, Tony travelled with her and auditioned for the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir in Los Angeles. He was accepted and remained in California. When his voice changed in his teens, Robert Mitchell kept him on as an assistant choir director and paid for his private education. He attended the a Hollywood school for young performers, where his classmates included Connie Stevens, Bobby Driscoll, Brenda Lee and Jill St. John, and where he sang in a quartet called The Fourmost with Stevens.

With the Mitchell Boys Choir, Butala appeared in films including White Christmas, The War of the Worlds and On Moonlight Bay, and he sang for one of the Lost Boys in Disney's Peter Pan (1953). He also sang in early color television commercials for Kellogg's and was chosen as the singing voice of Tommy Rettig on the Lassie television series.

In 1958 he was cast as one of three singers impersonating The Rhythm Boys in the revue Newcomers of 1928, which opened at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas on February 28, 1958. Comedy writer Jackie Barnett named the trio The Lettermen. After the show, Butala sang and played bass in the lounge group Bill Norvis and the Upstarts, where he met Jim Pike. The two formed a new trio with Bob Engemann, and after two unsuccessful Warner Bros. singles in 1960 they signed with Capitol Records in 1961.

"The Way You Look Tonight" reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "When I Fall in Love" went Top 10 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart. Later hits included "Theme from A Summer Place," the medley "Goin' Out of My Head / Can't Take My Eyes Off You" and "Hurt So Bad." The group recorded dozens of albums, played more than 200 concerts a year, and appeared on television with Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Johnny Carson and many others.

When Jim Pike left the group in the 1970s, Butala acquired the Lettermen name. He led the trio through many line-ups, including long partnerships with Donovan Tea and Bobby Poynton, until he stepped away from performing in May 2019. The Lettermen continue to perform.

In 1969 Butala bought a ranch in Chatsworth, California, and planted grapes. Less than 20 years later he bought another ranch along the southern Vaca Mountains on the eastern edge of the Napa Valley. He began selling wine commercially in 1992 under the Castlebrooke label and also grew grapes for other winemakers.

Butala married Judith Ann Blaskovich in 1969. The marriage ended in divorce, but they remained friendly until Judith died in a car crash on October 10, 2006, one day after her 60th birthday. They had four children, Anthony, Rebecca, Lisa and Regina, and five grandchildren. In his later years Butala lived in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

Butala described himself and the group as clean-cut and conservative, and he was unwilling to move the Lettermen toward the harder rock and psychedelic music of the late 1960s. In 1969 the group performed at a concert against indecency alongside Anita Bryant, Kate Smith and Jackie Gleason. Musically, he believed the Lettermen should always be three strong soloists who could also blend as one voice, and the group encouraged individual singing and songwriting. The group regularly visited children's hospitals while on tour and performed for charity telethons.

Butala was the one constant in the Lettermen for more than 60 years and the last surviving member of the original hit trio of Butala, Jim Pike and Bob Engemann. He built a group that outlasted the era that created it and laid the groundwork for the trio to continue performing after his retirement. The group's harmonies remain especially beloved in the Philippines and across Asia, and their recordings of standards such as "When I Fall in Love" and "The Way You Look Tonight" remain staples of romantic pop.

With the Lettermen, Butala earned four Grammy nominations, 11 gold records, an Andy Award and a Clio Award. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001, the Fans' Entertainment Hall of Fame in Las Vegas in 2011, and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2012, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 2020.

Selected Lettermen albums include A Song for Young Love (1962), Jim, Tony and Bob (1962), College Standards (1963), The Lettermen in Concert (1963), A Lettermen Kind of Love (1964), Portrait of My Love (1965), Goin' Out of My Head (1968), Hurt So Bad (1969) and Lettermen 1 (1972). Television appearances included The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis episode "Vocal Boy Makes Good" (1963) and The Jack Benny Program episode "The Lettermen" (1964).

The Lettermen announced Butala's death on their official Facebook page on Sunday, November 1, 2026, saying he had died just days before his 86th birthday. The exact date and place of death and the cause were not made public. In keeping with his wishes there was no public viewing. Celebrations of life were planned in Wisconsin and California, and the family asked that memorial gifts go to the Lakeshore Humane Society in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.