Lou Butera (May 15, 1937 – June 25, 2015) was an American professional

pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

player (then retired and operated a

pool hall A billiard hall, also known as a pool hall, snooker hall, pool room or pool parlour, is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve alcohol and often ...

) and an inductee into the

Billiard Congress of America The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the governing body for cue sports in the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is ...

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

in 1986. His nickname, "Machine Gun Lou", derives from his stunning the crowd and fellow competitors by 150-and-out in

straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a Cue sports, cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many s as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of Pool (cue sports), pool play ...

in under 25 minutes against his opponents. He gained exposure to the masses in 1981 and 1982 when he appeared in network

trick shot A trick shot (also trickshot or trick-shot) is a shot played on a billiards table (most often a pool table, though snooker tables are also used) which seems unlikely or impossible or requires significant skill. Trick shots frequently involve ...

competitions on

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and

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Early life

When Lou was seven years old, his mother passed away. His father, who owned a billiard room, had Lou come directly to the business after school each day. Lou would do his homework then play pool until he and his father went home. His early idol was Irving Crane, a pool player from Binghamton, NY.

Career

Lou earned his famous nickname, from setting the world record for fastest run out, in an exhibition against

Luther Lassiter Luther Clement Lassiter Jr. (November 5, 1918 – October 25, 1988), nicknamed Wimpy, was an American pool player from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The winner of seven world pocket billiard championships and numerous other titles, Lassiter is ...

he ran 150 balls in straight pool in just 19 minutes. Throughout his career, Butera won many tournaments. He was runner-up to Irving Crane in the 1972 World Championship in Los Angeles. In 1973, he won his first World Championship. He also won the Pennsylvania State Championship. In 1974, Butera won the All Japan Championship title, and also triumphed over Richie Florence to win the Bud Lundahl's Midwest Open, a straight pool tournament he won by a score of 150-68 in the title match. In 1991, Butera served as coach of the World Billiard Federation World Team, whose members included Nick Varner, Mike Sigel and Ray Martin. In a profile that appeared in the May/June, 1995 issue of , he was referred to as "...the man who may be the fastest pool player the game has ever known." Lou Butera was one of the 43 invited pool players who competed in the International Pool Tour's King of the Hill Shootout in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

, December 2005. Digitized videos of Butera demonstrating trick shots were included with the PC pool simulator '' Virtual Pool''.

Death

He died from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

on June 26, 2015.

Filmography

As an accomplished pool player, Butera has produced various instructional videos for students of pool about the fundamentals of the game. Lou Butera appeared in several films as an actor and technical advisor. He had a

cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...

, as himself, in the pool

hustling Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling (or gambling for higher than current stakes) with the hustler, as a form of both a confidence tri ...

comedy film ''

The Baltimore Bullet ''The Baltimore Bullet'' is a 1980 American comedy film based on the adventures of two pool hustlers in the United States. It was directed by Robert Ellis Miller and starred James Coburn, Omar Sharif, Bruce Boxleitner and Ronee Blakley. T ...

'' and as a pool player in '' Police Academy 6: City Under Siege''.Lou Butera, Actor
at the

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Butera had a

as pool player in, and was the pool technical advisor for, the 1984 film ''

Racing with the Moon ''Racing with the Moon'' is a 1984 American drama film directed by Richard Benjamin, written by Steve Kloves, and starring Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern and Nicolas Cage. The original music score was composed by Dave Grusin. The film's title de ...

'', starring

Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. List of awards and nominations received by Sean Penn, His accolades include two Academy Awards, a Golden Gl ...

. He was also featured on the 1995 Virtual Pool CD Rom video game. In 1986 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame.

Movies

Titles

* 1964 Pennsylvania Straight Pool Tournament * 1965 Pennsylvania Straight Pool Tournament * 1966 Pennsylvania Straight Pool Tournament * 1967 Midwest Open Straight Pool Tournament * 1969 Street City Open Straight Pool Tournament * 1969 Pittsburgh Straight Pool Tournament * 1972 California Straight Pool Tournament * 1973 BCA World Straight Pool Championship * 1974 U.S. Classic 14.1 Championship * 1974 All Japan Championship 9-Ball * 1975 Midwest Open 14.1 Championship * 1986

Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame This is the list of people inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's hall of fame to honor outstanding people who, through their competitive skills and dedication, have enriched the sport and industry. Two categories have been established in ...

* 1994

Mosconi Cup The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1994 between teams representing Europe and the United States. Named after American pool player Willie Mosconi, the event is comparable to the Ryder Cup in golf and the We ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Butera, Lou 1937 births 2015 deaths People from Pittston, Pennsylvania Sportspeople from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania American pool players Trick shot artists Straight pool world champions