Daws Butler grew up in Oak Park, IL (a suburb of Chicago) and originally wanted to be a cartoonist. He began his career in show business during the Depression, winning amateur contests at neighborhood theaters by doing impressions of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rudy Vallee, and a Model T Ford. He teamed with two other young men to form an act called "The Three Short Waves"; they did impressions of radio personalities. The act played night clubs and supper clubs throughout the Midwest. After service in the Naval Reserve during World War II, Butler moved to California and picked up radio parts on such network broadcasts as "Suspense" and "The Whistler" before spending five years teamed with Stan Freberg doing voices, handling puppets and writing for Bob Clampett's "Time for Beany" daily live television series, from which he earned an Emmy.

He also co-wrote and voiced many of Stan Freberg's greatest comedy records. He went on to write and voice countless television and radio commercials and voice now-classic characters for Tex Avery, Hanna-Barbera, Walter Lantz, Jay Ward and others. The successful characters he voiced are staggering in number: Chilly Willy, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Baba Looey, Mr. Jinx, Dixie, Super Snooper, Blabbermouse, Augie Doggie, Snagglepuss, Hokey Wolf, Fibber Fox, Loop de Loop, Wally Gator, Lippy Lion, Peter Potamus, Elroy Jetson, Mr. Cogswell, Henry Orbit, Cap'n Crunch, Hair Bear, and on and on...