Red Buttons

Red Buttons

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.
Known For: Acting
Birthday: 1919-02-05
Place of Birth: New York City, New York, USA
Also Known As: Cpl. Red Buttons, Aaron Chwatt

Movies List of Red Buttons

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Pete's Dragon

1977 Movie
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Hatari!

1962 Movie
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Harlow

1965 Movie
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The Story of Us

1999 Movie
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Gay Purr-ee

1962 Movie
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The Longest Day

1962 Movie
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Sayonara

1957 Movie
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18 Again!

1988 Movie
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Stagecoach

1966 Movie
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When Time Ran Out...

1980 Movie
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Viva Knievel!

1977 Movie
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Hansel and Gretel

1958 Movie
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Movie Movie

1978 Movie
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Your Cheatin' Heart

1964 Movie
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C.H.O.M.P.S.

1979 Movie
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The Ambulance

1990 Movie
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A Ticklish Affair

1963 Movie
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The Big Circus

1959 Movie
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Winged Victory

1944 Movie
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Imitation General

1958 Movie
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The Users

1978 Movie
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Leave 'Em Laughing

1981 Movie
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Gable and Lombard

1976 Movie
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Off Your Rocker

1982 Movie
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Telethon

1977 Movie
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Night of 100 Stars II

1985 Movie
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Power

1980 Movie
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One, Two, Three

1961 Movie
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Breakout

1970 Movie
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Up from the Beach

1965 Movie
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Footlight Varieties

1951 Movie
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Joys

1976 Movie
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Side Show

1981 Movie
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George M!

1970 Movie