5 things you didn't know about Red Buttons

For over 70 years Red Buttons, real name Aaron Chwatt, was a stand-up comic, actor, song writer, and singer. He started his career by entering talent shows during the great depression winning as much as $5 dollars. He went on to have a successful career in Vaudeville, Broadway, movies, television, and nightclubs. He was one of the early pioneers of television when “The Red Buttons Show” premiered in 1952. He is best known for his “never got a dinner” routines that he would perform during celebrity roasts.

Outside of all the laughs there are several things about Red Buttons that most people don't know. Here are just five of those items:

He was a singing waiter

One of Aaron Chwatt's first jobs was working in a tavern in the Bronx, New York. There was employed as a singing waiter and had to wear a uniform with big buttons on it. One day the owner of the tavern started calling him Red Buttons for his red hair and the shinny red buttons on the uniform.

He was drafted in 1943

Midway through World War II the United States Air Corp came calling o Mr. Buttons to due his part. He was put to work doing what he does best. He was cast in the Broadway play “Winged Victory”. After the play he was shipped off to Europe where he joined fellow actor Mickey Rooney in France to entertain the troops in Europe. Mr. Buttons was also among the first troops to enter Berlin.

He won three awards for one movie role

In 1957 Mr. Buttons co-starred in the movie “Sayonara”. His role of airman Joe Kelly garnered him a BAFTA (British academy of film and television arts) award, an Oscar, and a Golden Globe for best supporting actor.

He was married three time

Red Buttons married his first wife, Roxanne Arien, in 1940 not long after he started working the burlesque circuit. The marriage only lasted 2 years and was annulled. His next marriage came a couple of years after the war when, in 1947, he married Helayna McNorton. That marriage lasted for over a decade when they divorced in 1962. A year after that divorce he married for the third time and that marriage, to Alica Prats, would last for almost four decades until her death in 2001.

He died at the age of 87

Red Buttons had high blood pressure for years. On July 13, 2006 his high blood pressure became fatal when he was found dead at his California home. According to his publicist the cause was Vascular disease.