Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the eldest of four sons of Betty (née Chapman) and James "Bud" Bottoms, a sculptor and art teacher.
He graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1970. During his time there he gained acting and singing experience during various theater productions.[2]
As a result of both a physical resemblance to U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush and an ability to impersonate his voice, Bottoms has portrayed Bush in three widely varying productions. In 2000 and 2001, he played a parody of Bush in the Comedy CentralsitcomThat's My Bush!; he subsequently appeared as Bush in a cameo appearance in the family film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. Finally, following the September 11 attacks, Bottoms once again played Bush, this time in a serious fashion, in the TV film DC 9/11: Time of Crisis, one of the first films to be based upon the attacks.
During an episode of the Fox television show That '70s Show in which a tornado warning has been issued and the students of the high school are trapped, Bottoms is seen as the panicking principal. He appeared in a recurring role during the first season of the FX series Dirt as Gibson Horne, owner of the magazine for whom the main character Lucy Spiller, played by Courteney Cox, worked.
He also co-produced the documentary Picture This – The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas (1991), a behind-the-scenes work about the making of the films The Last Picture Show and Texasville. In the documentary, he revealed that he had a crush on his co-star Cybill Shepherd during The Last Picture Show, but she did not reciprocate his romantic feelings, even though she said in a separate interview that she found him "very attractive".[3] He was also heavily featured in the Metallica video for "One", which featured footage of the film Johnny Got His Gun.
In 2023, Bottoms released a novel entitled The Pier. The story follows a young boy out fishing for a day and the people and situations he encounters. The book was published by Tall Tales Press.
Bottoms has been married twice, first to singer Alicia Cory in 1975. They had a son before divorcing in 1982. His marriage to Marcia Morehart in 1984 produced three children.[1]