Red Buttons

Red Buttons, born Aaron Chwatt on February 5, 1919, in Manhattan, New York, was an American actor and comedian whose career spanned Broadway, television, and film. The son of Russo-Polish Jewish immigrants Sophie and Michael Chwatt, he grew up in New York City and died on July 13, 2006. His stage name originated during his teenage years, when he worked as a bellhop at Ryan's Tavern in City Island, the Bronx. Orchestra leader Charles "Dinty" Moore coined the nickname "Red Buttons" in reference to the young performer's red hair and the large, shiny buttons on his uniform.

At sixteen, Buttons took the bellhop job at Ryan's Tavern, and that same summer he worked the Borscht Belt circuit, where his straight man was Robert Alda. While employed at the Irvington Hotel in South Fallsburg, New York, he stepped in to replace an incapacitated master of ceremonies, gaining early experience as a solo performer. By 1939 he was working for Minsky's Burlesque, and in 1941 José Ferrer cast him in The Admiral Had a Wife, a farce set at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii. The production was scheduled to open on December 8, 1941, but was canceled following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the previous day. Buttons later joked that the attack had been staged specifically to keep him off Broadway.

His Broadway career, which extended from 1942 to 1995, began in September 1942 when he made his debut in Vickie, again alongside Ferrer and Uta Hagen. Later that year he appeared in Wine, Women and Song, a Minsky's production that became the last classic burlesque show in New York City history; the La Guardia administration shut it down during its run, and Buttons was on stage at the time of the raid. After being drafted into the United States Army Air Forces, he appeared in 1943 in Winged Victory, the Army Air Forces' Broadway production, sharing the stage with future stars including Mario Lanza, John Forsythe, Karl Malden, and Lee J. Cobb. The following year he appeared in Darryl F. Zanuck's film adaptation of the play, directed by George Cukor. During the war he also entertained troops in the European Theater as part of the same Jeep Show unit as Mickey Rooney. His additional Broadway credits include Hold It!, Barefoot Boy With Cheek, Buttons On Broadway, and Play It Again, Sam.

Following the war, Buttons continued performing on Broadway and at Broadway movie houses with big bands. In 1951 he appeared as himself delivering a comic monologue in the RKO Radio Pictures film revue Footlight Varieties. In 1952 he was given his own television series, The Red Buttons Show, which aired first on CBS and later on NBC, ranking as the eleventh most-watched prime-time program in 1952. The show ran for three years before General Foods ended its sponsorship and CBS declined to continue. In 1953, during the height of his television popularity, he recorded the two-sided hit "Strange Things Are Happening" backed with "The Ho Ho Song."

His film career shifted dramatically with his casting in Sayonara in 1957, in which he played Joe Kelly, an American airman stationed in Kobe, Japan, during the Korean War who marries a Japanese woman, played by Miyoshi Umeki, but is barred from bringing her back to the United States. The role earned Buttons the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; Umeki won Best Supporting Actress for the same film. He also received a Golden Globe for the performance. Subsequent film work included the African adventure Hatari! with John Wayne, Five Weeks in a Balloon in 1962, and The Longest Day that same year, in which he played Private John Steele, the paratrooper famously hung up on a town steeple clock. He appeared in the biopic Harlow, for which he received an award nomination, the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure, the dance-marathon drama They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, for which he was again nominated, the family film Pete's Dragon, which brought a further nomination, the disaster film When Time Ran Out with Paul Newman, and the comedy 18 Again! with George Burns. In 1966 he starred in the television spy spoof The Double Life of Henry Phyfe, which ran for one season.

Beginning in the 1970s, Buttons became a fixture at the Friars Club and on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast through his "Never Got a Dinner" comedy monologue, in which he catalogued elaborately eccentric examples of famous figures who had never been honored with a celebrity dinner. The routine produced the catchphrase "Never got a dinner!" He also became known for the phrase "I did not come here to be made sport of," which radio talk-show host Howie Carr later adopted. Buttons made guest appearances on numerous television programs, among them The Eleventh Hour, Little House on the Prairie, It's Garry Shandling's Show, Knots Landing, The Cosby Show, and Roseanne, with his final television role appearing in ER.