Lester Alvin (Smiley) Burnette (March 18, 1911 – February 16, 1967), an American singer-songwriter who could play as many as 100 different musical instruments, was a successful comedy actor in Western films over three decades.

Burnette was born in Summum, Illinois. He began singing in childhood and learned to play a variety of instruments while still a boy. In his teens, he worked in vaudeville and at a local radio station. His break came when he was hired to perform on the National Barn Dance on Chicago's WLS radio station where Gene Autry was the show's major star.

At a time when Hollywood was searching for talent for Western films, Burnette and Autry got their first small role in the 1934 Ken Maynard Republic Pictures film, In Old Santa Fe. Burnette appeared in several bit parts until the following year's release of the Rin Tin Tin hit film, The Adventures of Rex and Rinty in which he had a secondary but more prominent role. By then, Autry was already being cast in a lead role and the rotund Burnette would team up with him as a lovable comedy sidekick named Frog Millhouse (or plain Frog and sometimes as Smiley). Their association would produce more than 60 feature-length musical Westerns.