1919-02-05 ( 106 years old ) in New York City, New York, USA
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.
Movies
Goodnight, We Love You
2004-01-01
The Story of Us
1999-10-14
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
1997-01-21
Darryl F. Zanuck: 20th Century Filmmaker
1995-09-03
It Could Happen to You
1994-07-29
The Ambulance
1990-03-22
Jackie Gleason: The Great One
1988-09-10
18 Again!
1988-04-08
Reunion at Fairborough
1985-05-12
Night of 100 Stars II
1985-03-10
Off Your Rocker
1982-06-05
Side Show
1981-06-05
Leave 'Em Laughing
1981-04-29
When Time Ran Out...
1980-03-28
Power
1980-01-14
C.H.O.M.P.S.
1979-12-21
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July
1979-07-01
The Muppets Go Hollywood
1979-05-16
Movie Movie
1978-11-01
The Users
1978-10-01
Telethon
1977-11-06
Pete's Dragon
1977-11-03
Viva Knievel!
1977-06-10
Joys
1976-03-05
Gable and Lombard
1976-02-11
Louis Armstrong - Chicago Style
1976-01-25
The Poseidon Adventure
1972-12-01
Who Killed Mary Whats'ername?
1971-12-11
Breakout
1970-12-08
George M!
1970-09-12
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
1969-12-10
Murder at N.B.C.
1966-10-19
Stagecoach
1966-04-21
Harlow
1965-06-23
Up from the Beach
1965-05-25
Your Cheatin' Heart
1964-11-04
A Ticklish Affair
1963-08-18
Gay Purr-ee
1962-10-24
The Longest Day
1962-09-25
Five Weeks in a Balloon
1962-08-22
Hatari!
1962-06-19
One, Two, Three
1961-12-15
The Big Circus
1959-07-05
A Marriage of Strangers
1959-05-14
Imitation General
1958-08-20
Hansel and Gretel
1958-04-27
Sayonara
1957-12-25
Footlight Varieties
1951-03-21
Winged Victory
1944-12-22
Powered by Powerxsoft Ltd using the TMDB API