- Born
- Died
- Composer, songwriter, guitarist, accompanist, and 17-year music supervisor for Bing Crosby. For twenty years he was associated with Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor on radio and recordings, and he was a guitarist with the orchestras of Paul Whiteman, John Scott Trotter, Victor Young, and Johnny Green. He was a guitar soloist in films and in concerts and on television. Joining ASCAP in 1950, his chief musical collaborator was Preston Foster. His song compositions include "Two Shillelagh O'Sullivan", "Duke of the Uke", "Ukey-Ukulele", "Pick-A-Lili", "Executioner Theme", and "Waltz of the Hunter". He composed (and sometimes performed) the background music for the first 2 seasons of "The Beverly Hillbillies". Certain cues from those seasons are accredited to both Botkin and series creator Paul Henning. "Elly May's Theme" is one such title.
- IMDb mini biography by: Nik Ranieri
- The music he wrote for Murder by Contract (1958), which was used while the three characters drove around Los Angeles was used again in the The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), oftentimes when they drove around Los Angeles.
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