Les Charles was born in
Henderson, Nevada. He attended the
University of Redlands,
California and earned a
B.A. in
English. Charles began his professional career as a
high school English teacher, but moved into television.
He began his television career with his brother,
Glen Charles. The two were writer-producers for
The Bob Newhart Show, created and produced
Taxi, formed the Charles-Burrows-Charles production company with
James Burrows, and created and produced the
television series Cheers. The brothers also co-wrote the
screenplay for the
1999 film,
Pushing Tin.
An episode of
Scrubs, "My Life in Four Cameras", had a character named "Charles James" in honor of
Cheers creators James Burrows and Glen and Les Charles.
