Leslie Lawton was a child actor in films and television before he joined the Liverpool Playhouse Company. After several years in repertory and the West End theatre he returned to British television in roles throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. Following an uncredited part in the 1963 film Billy Liar, he appeared in Redcap, The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder, Z Cars and Elizabeth R.
He appeared in Coronation Street in two roles: as Frank Grieves in November 1964 and as Clive Owen in February 1966, one year after his role as prospective bridegroom Wilf Bundy in the spin-off Pardon the Expression.
He then went "behind the cameras" directing television commercials and then theatre plays with several companies. He left the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum to join Ray Cooney's Theatre of Comedy Company - first as an actor and then as artistic co-ordinator. He left the company in 1991 and then worked both as an actor and director in many countries around the world returning to the UK to direct several television series including In Loving Memory for Yorkshire Television.
He has served on the council of Equity and on an advisory panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain.