Red Buttons...

Red Buttons dies, age 87.

Born: 5 February 1919
New York, New York, USA

Birth name
Aaron Chwatt

I remember many of the movies Red Appeared in.. and most of all I remember his television show "The Red Buttons Show", with him cuffing his ear and singing the "Ho Ho Ho" song!

Every time we seem to hear of our actors and actresses passing I get sad.. I also get upset. I go to autograph shows and meet many actors past the age of 60 and I look at all the wonderful photo's of them "in their prime" and I stand and listen to the fans telling them how much they meant to them during this movie or that and grinning from ear to ear to have a few precious moments to meet them. And I see the expression on the actor or actress, and what I seem to see is happiness, for being remembered, and for feeling they had purpose in their life.

The next thing I know, I blink... and they are gone.

And each time I get more upset and don't understand why there isn't some sort of television or radio shows for these people, where many more "fans" could call in and ask questions of them and meet them and have their own special moments with them. For surely it's a "win -win situation" for the actor or actress and for the people who still think of them when they see one of their old movies and wish they knew what has become of them, for without agents.. it's a hard road to find an address to be able to write to them and tell them... that they surely aren't forgotten.

From the NY Times... Red Buttons, a Borscht Belt comic who rose to instant television stardom on his own variety show in 1952, descended to obscurity three years later after his program was canceled, and then rebounded to win the Academy Award as best supporting actor in 1958 for his dramatic performance in “Sayonara,” died today at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87.The cause was vascular disease, his publicist Warren Cown told The Associated Press.

(more from the NY Times here.)

IMDb Bio... Although Red Buttons is best known as a stand-up comic, he is also a successful song writer, an Academy Award-winning actor (and has been nominated for two Golden Globe awards) and an accomplished singer. Born Aaron Chwatt in New York City's Lower East Side, Buttons (who got his name from a uniform he wore while working as a singing bellhop) 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 was nominated for a Golden Globe for Harlow (1965/I) 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 1960s 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 andcharitable events, for which he has been honored by such organizations as the Friars Club and the City of Hope Hospital.

(Read this and credits at IMDb.com )