The son of a circuit-riding Methodist preacher, Buttram was born Maxwell Emmett Buttram in Winston County, Alabama, on June 19, 1915. He was an extremely well-known and popular comic entertainer, and throughout his career he was sought after as toastmaster and master-of-ceremonies. Buttram got his start in 1933, when at the age of 18, he attended the Chicago World's Fair and was interviewed by an announcer from Chicago radio station WLS. His entertaining commentary about the Fair led to a job with the station, and he went on to spend 13 years with the radio program National Barn Dance.

Buttram met Gene Aurty during his radio days, and played Aurty's sidekick in many western films and on the television series The Gene Autry Show (1950 ­ 1956). He married Shelia Ryan in 1952, an actress whom he met on the set of the movie Mule Train, and the couple had one child, a daughter named Kathleen Kerry. During the ensuing years Buttram worked consistently in radio, movies, and television, and lent his distinctive yodel-like voice to many animated television shows and films, including Disney's The Aristocats, Robin Hood, and The Rescuers. He can also be heard as the voice of a talking bullet in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Buttram's wife passed away in 1975 and sadly, the actor never truly recovered from the loss. Pat Buttram died on January 8, 1994.