Buddy Bowles (10 October 1928 – 11 April 2005; age 76) was a gaffer and chief lighting technician who worked as chief lighting technician on the third season and the first four episodes of the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation before he was replaced by William Peets.
Bowles started to work as gaffer in the early 1970s on projects such as Pickup on 101 (1972), Magnum Force (1973), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Eiger Sanction (1975), James Dean (1976), The Big Fix (1978, with second key grip Tom James), 10 (1979), and The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang (1979).
Further credits include East of Eden (1981), Cry for the Strangers (1982), Grease 2 (1982, with camera operator Phil Caplan), the television drama Heart of Steel (1983), the television drama His Mistress (1984, with grip Alex Barraza), and Fresno (1986, with key grip Armando Contreras).
His credits as chief lighting technician include Under the Rainbow (1981) and I'll Be Home for Christmas (1988, with camera operator Leo Napolitano).
Prior to his career in the camera and electrical department, Bowles worked as a child actor and appeared in featured roles in The Forest Rangers (1942) and in the comedy Henry Aldrich, Boy Scout (1944).