Edwin LeMar “Buddy” Cole (December 15, 1916 – November 5, 1964), was a jazz pianist, organist, orchestra leader, and composer. He played behind a number of pop singers, including Rosemary Clooney and Bing Crosby.

Cole was born in Irving, Illinois, on December 15, 1916 and the family moved to California when he was two. One of his two sisters – Bertie – played for silent movies and Buddy would watch as a little boy. At the age of ten, he deputised on the theater piano for someone who had not turned up. He started his musical career in the theater playing between movies and his first keyboard job was as theater organist at Los Angeles’ Figueroa Theater. He was recruited to be part of Gil Evans‘s band at the age of 19. In Hollywood in the second half of the 1930s Cole played in dance bands, including those led by Alvino Rey and Frankie Trumbauer. He married Yvonne King, member of the King Sisters, in 1940 and they had two daughters, Christine and Cathleen. They divorced in 1953. He married Regina Woodruff (known as Clare) on November 12, 1955 in Las Vegas but they separated on July 6, 1956 prior to a divorce on September 20 the same year.As soon as the divorce became final, Cole and Clare remarried in Los Angeles on November 12, 1957. From the 1940s, his main work was as a studio musician, utilising piano, electric organ, celeste, harpsichord and Novachord.