Thursday, July 13, 2006

Red Buttons, Comedian and `Sayonara' Actor, Dies at Age 87

Red Buttons, Comedian and `Sayonara' Actor, Dies at Age 87

July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Red Buttons, the comedian with brilliant red hair whose foray into movies won him an Oscar in 1958 for ``Sayonara,'' died today. He was 87.

Buttons died at his home, the Associated Press reported, citing a spokesman.

After a meteoric rise and fall as a television star in the early 1950s, the one-time burlesque performer got a supporting role in ``Sayonara,'' the 1957 film based on James Michener's book about U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan during the Korean War. He won an Oscar and channeled the win into a career as a comedic and dramatic character actor in more than 25 films.

Aaron Chwatt was born on Feb. 5, 1919, in the Bronx, New York, the son of an immigrant Jewish milliner. Buttons was nicknamed ``Irish'' because of his red hair and blue eyes.

At age 12, he won first place in a talent contest and performed as a bellboy-singer at a Bronx tavern at 16. Orchestra leader Dinty Moore gave him the stage name ``Red Buttons'' because of his costume uniform, not his hair.

Buttons's central talent was stand-up comedy. By 1939, he had joined Minsky's burlesque troupe, playing a baggy-pants comic who billed himself as the ``Only Burlesque Comedian with All His Own Teeth.''

Burlesque to Broadway

He debuted on Broadway in 1942 in ``Vickie,'' then his theater career was cut short by the World War II draft. Buttons served as an entertainer in special services and played a pilot in the stage and film versions of ``Winged Victory,'' meant to promote war bonds. After the war, he returned to the stage and performed comedy at top clubs and on TV variety shows.

His 1952 CBS variety series ``The Red Buttons Show'' displayed his rapid-fire style, and quickly became a hit. Children would mimic the ``Ho Ho! He He! Ha Ha! Strange things are happening!'' theme song. The show's ratings faded in its second year, and CBS canceled it. NBC picked up the show and changed the format from variety to a situation comedy about a TV comic, played by Buttons with Phyllis Kirk as his wife. The show lasted one season.

Buttons developed a variety of characters for the CBS show, including Rocky Buttons, a boxer; the Kupke Kid, a little boy; Keeglefarven, a bumbling German; and Sad Sack, a jinxed, luckless man. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine and won the Academy of Radio and Television Arts and Science's award, later renamed the Emmy, for best comedian in 1953.

Movie Career

Producers of the movie ``Sayonara'' reluctantly hired Buttons, out of work after his TV career fizzled, for the role of Sergeant Joe Kelly, who marries a Japanese woman. The role, wildly unlike his slapstick work, earned him the 1957 best supporting actor Oscar and Golden Globe.

He worked consistently in Hollywood over the next two decades, starring in comedies like ``Hatari!'' (1962), ``Pete's Dragon'' (1977), ``Movie Movie'' (1978), and ``18 Again!'' with George Burns (1988). He also had dramatic roles in movies like ``The Longest Day,'' the 1962 blockbuster about the 1944 D-day invasion of Normandy.

Buttons remade the classic 1939 John Wayne film ``Stagecoach'' with Bing Crosby and Ann-Margret in 1966 and played an endangered passenger in 1972's ``The Poseidon Adventure.'' He was nominated for best supporting actor Golden Globe for 1965's ``Harlow'' and 1969's ``They Shoot Horses, Don't They?''

He starred in the 1966 ABC sitcom ``The Double Life of Henry Phyfe'' and on ``Knots Landing'' for the 1987-88 season. Buttons frequently appeared on variety and talk shows and specials and guest-starred on dozens of series, including ``ER,'' ``Roseanne,'' and ``The Love Boat.''

He continued to headline comedy shows into his 80s. In 1995, Buttons performed a one-man show, ``Buttons on Broadway'' at the Ambassador Theater where he had appeared in burlesque a half-century earlier.

Survivors include his fourth wife, Sean Morgress and a daughter, Amy.