Lou Butera was an American professional pool player and an inductee into the Billiards Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1986. His nickname, "Machine Gun Lou", derives from his stunning the crowd and fellow competitors by 150-and-out in straight pool in 21 minutes against Allen Hopkins in 1973. He gained exposure to the masses in 1981 and 1982 when he appeared in network trick shot competitions on CBS and ABC.
Early life
When Butera was 14 years old, he saw BCA Hall of FamerErwin Rudolph in an exhibition match. From that point on, Lou devoted his life to billiards.
Career
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. Lou earned his famous nickname that same year when, in an exhibition with Allen Hopkins, he ran 150 straight balls in just 21 minutes. He also won the Pennsylvania State Championship twice. In 1974, Butera won the All Japan title against the world's best, 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 such luminaries as Nick Varner, Mike Siegel 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, December 2005. Digitized videos of Butera demonstrating trick shots were included with the PC pool simulator Virtual Pool.
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, as himself, in the pool hustlingcomedy filmThe Baltimore Bullet and as a pool player in . Butera had a cameo appearance as pool player in, and was the pool technical advisor for, the 1984 filmRacing with the Moon, starring Sean Penn. He was also featured on the 1995 Virtual Pool CD Romvideo game. In 1986 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame.
