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Tony Butala, a co-founder of the Grammy-nominated vocal trio The Lettermen, died Sunday at age 87, according to an Associated Press report carried by ABC News. The band’s media coordinator, Tracy Clark, confirmed the death. No cause was given.
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Shop NowBorn in Sharon, Pennsylvania, in 1938, Butala began singing professionally as a child and was performing on Pittsburgh’s KDKA Radio by age 8.
After moving to Los Angeles, he joined the Mitchell Boys Choir and appeared in films including “White Christmas” and “Peter Pan.”
In the late 1950s he formed The Lettermen with Jim Pike and Bob Engemann.
Their 1961 version of “The Way You Look Tonight” reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination, and the group was also nominated for best new artist. Top 10 hits followed with “When I Fall in Love” and a 1968 medley, part of 19 more chart entries over the next decade.
Butala was the last surviving original member of the trio.
He stopped performing in 2019, and the group received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2020. “Tony never met a stranger,” the band said in a statement. Celebrations of life in Wisconsin and California will be announced later.
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