Red Buttons

Red Buttons

  • Birthday: 1919-02-05
  • Deathday: 2006-07-13
  • Place of birth: New York City, New York, USA
  • Also know as: Cpl. Red Buttons

Biography

Although Red Buttons is best known as a stand-up comic, he is also a successful songwriter, an Academy Award-winning actor (and has been nominated for two Golden Globe awards) and an accomplished singer. Born Aaron Chwatt on February 5, 1919 (Aquarius) in New York City's Lower East Side, stood at a height of 5' 6" (1.68 m). Buttons (who got his name from a uniform he wore while working as a singing bellhop), also known as Cpl. Red Buttons, started his show-business career singing on street corners as a child. At 16 he got a job as part of a comedy act playing the famed Catskills resort area in upstate New York (his partner was future actor Robert Alda). Buttons worked the burlesque circuit as a comic and even landed a role in a Broadway play, "Vicki", in 1942. He soon joined the U.S. Marine Corps, and in 1943 was picked for a role in Moss Hart's service play "Winged Victory" on Broadway, and soon afterwards journeyed to Hollywood to make the film version. After his discharge from the service he returned to Broadway, both in plays and as a comic with several big-band orchestras. He was successful enough that he got his own TV series, The Red Buttons Show (1952), on CBS. It lasted three years and won Buttons an Emmy for Best Comedian. He worked steadily for the next several years, and in 1957 got his big film break in the drama Sayonara (1957) with Marlon Brando, in which he played an American soldier stationed in Japan who struggled against the societal and racist pressures of both American and Japanese cultures because of his love for a Japanese woman. His performance garnered him an Academy Award, and more film roles followed. He played a paratrooper in The Longest Day (1962), was nominated for a Golden Globe for Harlow (1965) and again for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). He had a part in the TV series The Double Life of Henry Phyfe (1966) and has done pretty much every kind of TV show there is, from variety to comedy to soap operas. He gained further renown in the 1970s for his appearances on the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roast" where he performed his "Never Got a Dinner" act to great acclaim. He has played Las Vegas for years, has a star on Hollywood Boulevard (corner of Hollywood and Vine) and has appeared in numerous telethons and charitable events, for which he has been honored by such organizations as the Friars Club and the City of Hope Hospital. He died July 13, 2006 at the age of 87 in Century City, California, USA from vascular disease.

Filmography

Five Weeks in a Balloon

1962

As Donald O'Shay

Who Killed Mary Whats'ername?

1971

As Mickey Isadore

Hansel and Gretel

1958

As Hansel

Harlow

1965

As Arthur Landau

Stagecoach

1966

As Peacock

The Big Circus

1959

As Randy Sherman

Imitation General

1958

As Cpl. Chan Derby

Breakout

1970

As Pipes

Off Your Rocker

1982

As Seymour Saltz

The Poseidon Adventure

1972

As James Martin

Gay Purr-ee

1962

As Robespierre (voice)

Your Cheatin' Heart

1964

As Shorty Younger

Movie Movie

1978

As Peanuts / Jinks Murphy

A Ticklish Affair

1963

As Flight Officer Simon 'Uncle Cy' Shelley

The Users

1978

As Warren Ambrose

Telethon

1977

As Marty Rand

Reunion at Fairborough

1985

As Jiggs Quealy

Up from the Beach

1965

As PFC Harry Devine

Hatari!

1962

As Pockets

Viva Knievel!

1977

As Ben Andrews

C.H.O.M.P.S.

1979

As Bracken

The Ambulance

1990

As Elias Zacharai

Goodnight, We Love You

2004

As Himself

Gable and Lombard

1976

As Ivan Cooper

Footlight Varieties

1951

As Himself

George M!

1970

As Sam H. Harris

Pete's Dragon

1977

As Hoagy

18 Again!

1988

As Charlie

Winged Victory

1944

As Whitey / Andrews Sister

Sayonara

1957

As Joe Kelly

When Time Ran Out...

1980

As Francis Fendly

Leave 'Em Laughing

1981

As Roland Green

Side Show

1981

As Harry Hubbell

The Story of Us

1999

As Arnie Jordan

It Could Happen to You

1994

As Walter Zakuto

Joys

1976

As Self

The Longest Day

1962

As Pvt. John Steele

Power

1980

As Solly Weiss

One, Two, Three

1961

As MP Sergeant (uncredited)

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