When Gerard Butler spoke about his mother, he did not reach for the usual celebrity platitudes. \”She was my everything,\” he said, \”because she was both my mum and my dad.\” Margaret Butler raised three children largely alone in the west of Scotland after her marriage ended, and for the rest of her life she remained the person her famous son came home to. She died in February 2025 at the age of 81 — and in the months that followed, her son’s grief became one of the most public stories of his career.
Margaret Butler — later known as Margaret Coll after a subsequent marriage — was the anchor of the Butler family. She was the one who took the children back from Canada to Scotland when the marriage broke down, the one who brought them up in a Glasgow suburb, and the one Gerard flew home to see most weekends even at the height of his Hollywood career. In June 2025, the live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon was dedicated to her memory, and Butler’s emotional interviews about her introduced her, posthumously, to millions.
This article sets out what the public record shows about Margaret Butler: the marriage to Edward, the years of single motherhood, the long later life in Perthshire, and the tribute that marked her passing. Unlike some figures in this series, her story has a documented public ending — and it is a moving one.
BLUF: Margaret Butler (later Margaret Coll) was the mother of Scottish actor Gerard Butler. She raised her three children — Lynn Butler, Brian Butler, and Gerard — largely alone after separating from her husband, Edward Butler, when Gerard was 18 months old. She lived in Comrie, Perthshire, for more than 20 years and died in February 2025 aged 81; the live-action How to Train Your Dragon was dedicated to her memory.
At a Glance
- Full name: Margaret Butler, later Margaret Coll (after remarriage)
- Children: Lynn Butler, Brian Butler, and Gerard Butler (born 13 November 1969)
- Marriage: Married Edward Butler, a bookmaker; separated when Gerard was 18 months old after a brief family move to Montreal, Canada
- Later life: Lived in the village of Comrie, Perthshire, for more than 20 years
- Death: February 2025, aged 81
- Public tribute: The 2025 live-action How to Train Your Dragon carries the dedication \”Dedicated to the loving memory of Margaret Coll\”
- Background: Scottish, Catholic family of Irish descent; raised her children in the Glasgow area
The marriage and the move to Canada
Margaret married Edward Butler, a Scottish bookmaker, and the couple had three children: Lynn, Brian, and Gerard, the youngest, born in Paisley on 13 November 1969. When Gerard was six months old, Edward moved the family to Montreal, Quebec, to try his luck in business in Canada. The ventures failed. Eighteen months later, with the marriage in tatters, Margaret did what the record shows plainly: she took the three children and came home to Scotland, settling in a suburb of Glasgow.
It was a decisive act that defined the rest of the family’s history. Edward remained out of the children’s lives for years — Gerard had no contact with his father between the ages of two and 16 — and Margaret became, in her son’s words, both mother and father. Biographical profiles note that she later remarried, taking the name Coll, though details of that marriage are not part of the public record.
Raising three children alone
The Glasgow years are the least documented and arguably the most important part of Margaret Butler’s story. She brought up Lynn, Brian, and Gerard in a Catholic household of Irish descent, working to keep the family steady. Gerard went on to become head boy at St Mirin’s & St Margaret’s High School in Paisley, attended the Scottish Youth Theatre, and won a place to study law at the University of Glasgow — the trajectory of a young man whose mother had held the family together.
Gerard’s own testimony is the clearest window into those years. \”She was my everything, because she was both my mum and my dad,\” he said — a sentence that compresses two decades of single motherhood into nine words. When Edward died of cancer in 1991, it was Margaret who remained the family’s centre.
Comrie, Perthshire: the later years
In later life, Margaret lived in the village of Comrie in Perthshire, where she had a home for more than 20 years, according to Scottish press reports. Even as her son’s career took him to Hollywood, the connection held: during the filming of How to Train Your Dragon in Belfast, Butler made a habit of flying home to Scotland most weekends to be with her during her illness.
She died in February 2025 at the age of 81. The news became public that spring, when Butler began speaking about her in interviews around the film’s release. In a June 2025 interview with Magic Radio, he said he had been \”so excited for her to see\” the film but had \”a feeling she wasn’t going to make it.\” He described his mother as \”strong, fiery, graceful and beautiful,\” and said: \”If Stoick had a mum, that would have been my mum.\”
The dedication
The tribute took a form few mothers receive. Director Dean DeBlois proposed to Universal Pictures that the live-action How to Train Your Dragon — in which Butler reprises his role as Stoick the Vast — be dedicated to Margaret, and surprised the actor with the news. Audiences who stayed through the credits saw the line: \”Dedicated to the loving memory of Margaret Coll.\”
Butler said he was deeply moved, and shared that his mother had once written him \”the most beautiful letter,\” telling him: \”I want you to be happy, and I love you no matter what.\” It was, he suggested, the letter of a woman who had backed her son’s unlikely dream of acting from the very beginning. Margaret Butler’s public story ends there: remembered in the credits of a film seen around the world, by a son who never stopped coming home.
People Also Ask
Who was Gerard Butler’s mother?
Gerard Butler’s mother was Margaret Butler, later known as Margaret Coll after remarrying. She raised Gerard and his two older siblings largely alone in Scotland after separating from her husband, Edward Butler. She died in February 2025 aged 81.
When did Margaret Butler die?
Margaret Butler died in February 2025 at the age of 81. Her death was publicly confirmed that spring through Gerard Butler’s interviews around the release of the live-action How to Train Your Dragon.
Why was How to Train Your Dragon dedicated to Margaret Butler?
Director Dean DeBlois proposed dedicating the 2025 live-action film to Gerard Butler’s late mother as a surprise tribute. Butler had voiced Stoick the Vast in the animated films and reprised the role; the dedication reads \”Dedicated to the loving memory of Margaret Coll.\”
Where did Margaret Butler live?
In her later years, Margaret Butler lived in the village of Comrie in Perthshire, Scotland, where she had a home for more than 20 years, according to Scottish press reports.