American actor Red Buttons, born Aaron Schwatt and raised on New York's Lower East Side, won an amateur night contest at age 12. By age 16 he was working in a Bronx tavern as a bellboy-singer; here he took the name "Red Buttons", in reference to his uniform. He went on to work the Catskills Mountains "Borscht Belt" and to perform as a burlesque comedian. He debuted on Broadway as a supporting player in Vickie in 1942. He served in the Army during World War II, appearing in the play Winged Victory; he played the same role in the film version (1944), marking his big-screen debut. After briefly starring in his own TV show in 1953 he had a weak career until he landed the role of Sargeant Joe Kelly in the film Sayonara (1957), his second movie role; for his work in that film he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, going on from there to appear frequently in films, usually as a comedy actor.
Red Buttons
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- Dubbed Red Buttons when, as a redheaded teen, he got a job as a singing bellhop wearing a coat adorned with dozens of buttons.
- A veteran of the vaudeville and burlesque circuits and the Borscht Belt.
- Early in his career, he sometimes partnered with actor-singer Robert Alda.
- Married his first wife, a stripper named Roxanne, in 1940, but the marriage was annulled after two years.
- In December 1941, he was set to play on Broadway in a comedy called The Admiral Takes a Wife, about life on a naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Unfortunately, the show was scheduled to debut on December 8, the day after the Japanese bombed the real Pearl Harbor, and the production never opened.
- Was performing onstage in 1942 when Minsky's burlesque show Wine, Women and Song was raided by police and shut down. The event is widely considered the end of the burlesque era.
- The catchphrase from his 1950s TV variety program, The Red Buttons Show, was "Strange things are happening," and it became a big hit among the younger generation.
- When ratings plummeted in the second year of his show, he scrambled to find good comedic material and went through more than 160 writers in a two-year span, among them Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart.
- In later years, was known for his "Never had a dinner" routine, about famous people who were never honored with a testimonial meal.