# Red Buttons
**Red Buttons** (born Aaron Chwatt; February 5, 1919 – July 13, 2006) was an American comedian and actor whose career of more than 60 years ran from burlesque and the Catskills resorts through early television to Academy Award-winning film roles. He became one of television's first stars with *The Red Buttons Show* in 1952, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for the 1957 drama *Sayonara*, and later became a fixture of the celebrity roast circuit.[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red) • [2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/hollywood-icon-red-buttons-dies)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | Aaron Chwatt, February 5, 1919, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan; father was a Polish immigrant hatmaker[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red) |
| Stage name | Given at 16 while working as a singing bellboy at a Bronx tavern: "Red" for his red hair, "Buttons" for the 48 brass buttons on his uniform[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red) |
| Television | *The Red Buttons Show* premiered on CBS on October 14, 1952; Emmy for Best Comedian; canceled in 1955 after a move to NBC[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/A-Pictorial-History-of-Television-1959-Blum.pdf) • [4](https://bigtakeover.com/news/all-around-talent-rip-red-buttons-1919-2006) |
| Signature bit | The "Ho Ho Song": hopping, hand cupped to one ear, singing "Ho Ho! Hee Hee! Ha Ha! Strange things are happening"[5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/red-buttons/) |
| Oscar | Best Supporting Actor for *Sayonara* (1957), playing Sgt. Joe Kelly; also won the Golden Globe[6](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/red-buttons/bio/3030032219/) |
| Known films | *Hatari!* (1962), *The Longest Day* (1962), *Stagecoach* (1966), *They Shoot Horses, Don't They?* (1969), *The Poseidon Adventure* (1972)[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919) |
| Walk of Fame | Television star at 1651 Vine Street, ceremony February 8, 1960[8](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/) |
| Died | July 13, 2006, at his home in Los Angeles, of vascular disease, at 87[2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/hollywood-icon-red-buttons-dies) |
## Early life and the making of "Red Buttons"
Buttons grew up in a tenement family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before his family moved to the Bronx. His father, a Polish immigrant who made hats, sang and danced and made people laugh, and Buttons said watching him taught him what he wanted to do[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red). He sang in the streets for change at age seven, and at 12 won a talent contest at the Fox Corona Theater, dressed in a sailor suit and billing himself as Little Skippy, with the song "Sweet Jennie Lee"[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red).
At 16, while still in high school, he took a job as a singing bellboy at a tavern on City Island in the Bronx (the [Hollywood Walk of Fame](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-walk-of-fame) account names it as Ryan's Tavern). The nickname came from the combination of his bright red hair and a uniform with 48 brass buttons; the Walk of Fame credits orchestra leader Charles "Dinty" Moore with coining it[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red) • [8](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/). That same summer he joined the Catskills circuit as a singer, switching to comedy after his voice changed, and worked the [Borscht Belt](https://www.edgepedia.org/borscht-belt) with [Robert Alda](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-alda), father of Alan Alda, as his straight man[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red) • [8](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/). From 1939 he worked for Minsky's Burlesque as a baggy-pants comic[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919) • [8](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/).
## Broadway, wartime service, and burlesque's end
[José Ferrer](https://www.edgepedia.org/jose-ferrer) chose Buttons for the Broadway farce *The Admiral Had a Wife*, set in [Pearl Harbor](https://www.edgepedia.org/pearl-harbor) and due to open December 8, 1941; it never opened, having been deemed inappropriate after the Japanese attack[8](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/). His actual Broadway debut came in September 1942 in *Vickie*, alongside Ferrer and [Uta Hagen](https://www.edgepedia.org/uta-hagen)[8](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/). Later that year he appeared in the Minsky's show *Wine, Women and Song*, which the Walk of Fame describes as the last burlesque show in New York City history before Mayor La Guardia's administration shut burlesque down; Buttons was on stage when the show was raided[8](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/).
Drafted during World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps and was assigned to special services as an entertainer[6](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/red-buttons/bio/3030032219/). He appeared in the patriotic stage show *Winged Victory*, designed to encourage war-bond purchases, as a pilot in training, and recreated the role in the 1944 film version[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919) • [9](https://www.fandango.com/people/red-buttons-90511/biography). After the war he returned to Broadway in the musicals *Barefoot Boy with Cheek* (1947) and *Hold It!*[10](https://playbill.com/person/red-buttons-vault-0000096431).
## The Red Buttons Show
Buttons migrated to television in 1952, when CBS signed him for *The Red Buttons Show*, a half-hour comedy variety show that first aired on October 14, 1952[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/A-Pictorial-History-of-Television-1959-Blum.pdf). The show was acclaimed as the most promising new program on television, and its star appeared on the cover of *Time* magazine[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919). Children across the country hopped around singing his theme song, "Ho Ho! Hee Hee! Ha Ha! Strange things are happening," and his trademarks were the song and a gesture of cupping one hand to his ear in the manner of a radio announcer[5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/red-buttons/) • [11](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/red-buttons/).
He won an Emmy as Best Comedian for the first season[4](https://bigtakeover.com/news/all-around-talent-rip-red-buttons-1919-2006). His gallery of characters included the boxer Rocky Buttons, the little boy the Kupke Kid, the bumbling German Keeglefarven, and the jinxed Sad Sack[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919). The popularity did not last. Ratings fell in the second season and CBS dropped the show; NBC picked it up the next season, converted it from variety to a situation comedy in which Buttons played a trouble-prone television comic, with Phyllis Kirk as his wife and a young [Paul Lynde](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-lynde) as a feuding network vice president, and canceled it in the spring of 1955[5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/red-buttons/) • [7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919).
## Sayonara and a second career in film
Out of work in 1957, Buttons was cast by director Joshua Logan as Sergeant Joe Kelly in *Sayonara*, starring [Marlon Brando](https://www.edgepedia.org/marlon-brando); Logan had admired a dramatic turn Buttons gave on a 1951 episode of the television anthology *Suspense*[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919). In the film, set in postwar Japan, Kelly is an American soldier who defies Army regulations by marrying his Japanese girlfriend, a romance that ends in tragedy[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red) • [12](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2006/07/14/the-bright-appeal-of-red-buttons/d59e081d-4ed2-46d7-a751-f0bf9d8b4d6a/). Buttons won the [Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-supporting-actor), accepting it with the words "I'm a very happy guy," along with the Golden Globe in the same category[6](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/red-buttons/bio/3030032219/) • [13](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/red-buttons-5329803.html). The award turned a stalled comic career into decades of work as a serious character actor[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red).
His film roles kept him in both registers. In *The Longest Day* (1962) he played a paratrooper left hanging when his parachute snags on a church steeple in a French town, a performance remembered for its animated facial expressions; in *Hatari!* (1962) he worked with [John Wayne](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-wayne), who quipped that "Red is the only guy who could steal a movie from a monkey"[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919) • [1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red). He appeared in the 1966 remake of *Stagecoach* and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for *They Shoot Horses, Don't They?* (1969), a tragedy about dance-marathon contestants during the [Depression](https://www.edgepedia.org/depression)[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919). He was one of the endangered passengers in the 1972 disaster film *The Poseidon Adventure*, and he later played in *Movie Movie* (1978), written for him by [Larry Gelbart](https://www.edgepedia.org/larry-gelbart) twenty-five years after Gelbart had been fired as his head writer[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919) • [13](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/red-buttons-5329803.html).
## Roasts, television, and later years
Buttons became one of the stars of the celebrity roast circuit and of [Dean Martin](https://www.edgepedia.org/dean-martin)'s televised roasts from 1972 to 1977, arriving on the dais with the recurring cry "Some of the most famous people in history never got a dinner!"[11](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/red-buttons/). His television work continued across decades, with appearances on shows including *Wonder Woman*, *Roseanne*, *Knots Landing*, and a 2005 guest role on *ER* that brought an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series[14](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/rip-red-buttons/) • [2](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/hollywood-icon-red-buttons-dies). He received his Hollywood Walk of Fame star in the television category in February 1960[8](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/).
Small in stature at 5 feet 6 and about 140 pounds, he built his comic persona on being a little man beset by troubles, and he remained active in film and television as both comic and character actor into the 1990s[5](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/red-buttons/) • [7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919). In 1995 he appeared on Broadway in his one-man show *Buttons on Broadway*, which included material from his Catskills and burlesque years such as "Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long"[10](https://playbill.com/person/red-buttons-vault-0000096431) • [4](https://bigtakeover.com/news/all-around-talent-rip-red-buttons-1919-2006). In his last years he still took pleasure in live performance before audiences who had followed him since television's beginning; in 1995, at 76, he sang [Al Jolson](https://www.edgepedia.org/al-jolson) songs for about 275 residents of the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, saying, "These are the people who during their lifetime paid money to see me. And when I walk on that stage, I do it from the heart"[15](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-02-me-63914-story.html).
## References
1. [Buttons, Red, St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture via Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/buttons-red)
2. [Hollywood Icon Red Buttons Dies, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/hollywood-icon-red-buttons-dies)
3. [A Pictorial History of Television (Blum, 1959), WorldRadioHistory](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/History/A-Pictorial-History-of-Television-1959-Blum.pdf)
4. [All-Around Talent: R.I.P. Red Buttons 1919-2006, Big Takeover](https://bigtakeover.com/news/all-around-talent-rip-red-buttons-1919-2006)
5. [Red Buttons, Hollywood Star Walk, Los Angeles Times](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/red-buttons/)
6. [Red Buttons Biography, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/red-buttons/bio/3030032219/)
7. [Buttons, Red (1919—), Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/buttons-red-1919)
8. [Red Buttons, Hollywood Walk of Fame](https://walkoffame.com/red-buttons/)
9. [Red Buttons Biography, Fandango](https://www.fandango.com/people/red-buttons-90511/biography)
10. [Red Buttons (Performer), Playbill Vault](https://playbill.com/person/red-buttons-vault-0000096431)
11. [Red Buttons, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/red-buttons/)
12. [The Bright Appeal of Red Buttons, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2006/07/14/the-bright-appeal-of-red-buttons/d59e081d-4ed2-46d7-a751-f0bf9d8b4d6a/)
13. [Red Buttons obituary, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/red-buttons-5329803.html)
14. [R.I.P. Red Buttons, Rotten Tomatoes](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/rip-red-buttons/)
15. [Reseda: Red Buttons Wows a Favorite Crowd, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-02-me-63914-story.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1940s to 1960s › Surnames Br to C*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license