Red Buttons
Birth : 1919-02-05, New York City, New York, USA
Death : 2006-07-13
History
Although Red Buttons is best known as a stand-up comic, he is also a successful songwriter, an Academy Award-winning actor (and has been nominated for two Golden Globe awards) and an accomplished singer. Born Aaron Chwatt on February 5, 1919 (Aquarius) in New York City's Lower East Side, stood at a height of 5' 6" (1.68 m). Buttons (who got his name from a uniform he wore while working as a singing bellhop), also known as Cpl. Red Buttons, 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 played a paratrooper in The Longest Day (1962), was nominated for a Golden Globe for Harlow (1965) 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 1970s 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 and charitable events, for which he has been honored by such organizations as the Friars Club and the City of Hope Hospital. He died July 13, 2006 at the age of 87 in Century City, California, USA from vascular disease.
Himself
GOODNIGHT, WE LOVE YOU is a film that chronicles the final stand-up comedy performance of a true living legend - the first female stand-up comic in history: Phyllis Diller. In 2002, Phyllis Diller announced that she would be hanging up her wigs and sequins after 47 years on the road. This film captures a never-before-seen, intimate look at a trailblazer for both women and comedy. Miss Diller provides unprecedented access to her preparations for her final performance at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is a revealing and personal study of the art of stand-up comedy as told by an icon and a true comedic genius.
Arnie Jordan
Ben and Katie Jordan are a married couple who go through hard times in fifteen years of marriage.
Self
The first half century of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation from its beginnings under Hungarian immigrant William Fox to it emergence as a major studio.
Himself - Actor / Friend
A biography of Darryl F. Zanuck, mogul and the power behind 20th Century Fox throughout the Golden Age.
Walter Zakuto
Charlie Lang is a simple, kindhearted New York City cop. When he realizes he has no money to tip waitress Yvonne Biasi, Lang offers her half the winnings of his lottery ticket. Amazingly, the ticket happens to be a winner, in the sum of $4 million. True to his word, Lang proceeds to share the prize money with Biasi, which infuriates his greedy wife, Muriel. Not content with the arrangement, Muriel begins scheming to take all the money.
Elias Zacharai
Josh meets a young woman who shortly afterwards collapses and is rushed to hospital in an ambulance. He follows after her only to find that there is no record her being admitted, and he soon learns that her roommate also vanished after being picked up by the same ambulance. Convinced of a conspiracy, Josh proceeds to investigate, despite the discouragement of the police.
Self
Documentary about the life and times of Jackie Gleason.
Charlie
18 Again! is a 1988 comedy film starring George Burns and Charlie Schlatter. The plot involves a grandson switching souls with his grandfather by means of an accident. This was one of a series of unrelated films, including Like Father, Like Son and Vice Versa, produced in the late 1980s involving a similar plotline.
Jiggs Quealy
World War II vets travel to England for a reunion at their old base. Stars Judi Trott, Barry Morse, Red Buttons, Deborah Kerr, Shane Rimmer, Robert Mitchum
Self
This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited from a seven-hour live entertainment marathon that was taped February 17, 1985, at New York's Radio City Music Hall, this sequel to the 1982 "Night of 100 Stars" special features 288 celebrities.
Harry Hubbell
A teenage boy who runs off to join the circus as a side show puppeteer stumbles onto the dark secrets of the fellow performers.
Roland Green
Real-life clown Jack Thum, along with his devoted wife, Shirlee, cared for dozens of homeless children — 37 of them over the years — in the Chicago area, all of whom come back to visit when they discover he's terminally ill.
Francis Fendly
An active volcano threatens a south Pacific island resort and its guests as a power struggle ensues between the property's developer and a drilling foreman.
Solly Weiss
Loosely based on the life of Jimmy Hoffa, this traces the rise of Tommy Vanda (Joe Don Baker) from a Chicago dock worker to an influential labor leader who, like Hoffa, finds himself behind bars in a federal prison, and not long after, taken for a ride by shady men never to be seen again.
Bracken
A young man invents a robot dog that has super strength, x-ray vision and can detect crimes being committed. A greedy businessman tries to steal the boy's invention from him.
Milton (voice)
Winterbolt is trying to make the North Pole his evil wonderland, and it is up to Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and others to stop him.
Self
Kermit the Frog throws a glamorous party at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub to celebrate the premiere of the Muppets' first feature film, The Muppet Movie. Hosts Dick van Dyke and Rita Moreno interview the wide array of celebrities and Muppets who attend the event. Gary Owens serves as off-camera announcer, and appears on-screen to introduce Miss Piggy.
Peanuts / Jinks Murphy
Three movie genres of the 1930s, boxing films, WWI aviation dramas, and backstage Broadway musicals, are satirized using the same cast.
Warren Ambrose
A beautiful girl from a small town with dreams of making it in Hollywood marries an actor whose career is fading, then schemes to get him back into the big time - and her with him.
Marty Rand
The behind-the-scenes intrigues — including, possibly, a murder — of an all-star fundraising telethon set in Las Vegas.
Hoagy
Pete, a young orphan, runs away to a Maine fishing town with his best friend a lovable, sometimes invisible dragon named Elliott! When they are taken in by a kind lighthouse keeper, Nora, and her father, Elliott's prank playing lands them in big trouble. Then, when crooked salesmen try to capture Elliott for their own gain, Pete must attempt a daring rescue.
Ben Andrews
The legendary stuntman plans his most incredible stunt yet while battling the mob in this action-adventure.
Self
Over fifty of the greatest living comedians are called to a party at Bob Hope's house, where each of them is systematically killed (and their bodies thrown in Hope's pool!). Hope and the rapidly shrinking cast try to discover who is the mysterious killer known only as "Joys."
Ivan Cooper
A biography about the love affair between 1930s Hollywood superstars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard.
The story of how jazz great Louis Armstrong got his start playing in Chicago clubs, how he was framed on a drug charge, and his travels throughout Europe, where he first gained worldwide fame.
James Martin
When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.
Mickey Isadore
A prostitute is murdered on the streets of a tough, low-income neighborhood. A diabetic retired boxer who knew her is appalled by the lack of interest shown in the case by the police or anybody else in the neighborhood, and decides to investigate the case himself.
Sam H. Harris
Based on the semi-hit Broadway musical of 1968 starring Joel Grey, this TV version has been re-fashioned in significant ways. The premise here is that a small group of modern-day performers have gotten together in a rehearsal studio to celebrate George M. Cohan's life and work. Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters (also from the original cast) and the other cast members are apparently playing themselves, with Austin Pendleton serving as a stage manager/director.
Pipes
A prison inmate comes up with a plan to break out in order to be near his wife--and also the $50,000 in stolen cash for which he was originally imprisoned.
Sailor
In the midst of the Great Depression, manipulative emcee Rocky enlists contestants for a dance marathon offering a $1,500 cash prize. Among them are a failed actress, a middle-aged sailor, a delusional blonde and a pregnant girl.
Peacock
A group of unlikely travelling companions find themselves on the same stagecoach to Cheyenne. They include a drunken doctor, a bar girl who's been thrown out of town, a professional gambler, a travelling liquor salesman, a banker who has decided to embezzle money, a gun-slinger out for revenge and a young woman going to join her army captain husband. All have secrets but when they are set upon by an Indian war party and then a family of outlaws, they find they must all work together if they are to stay alive.
Arthur Landau
Hollywood drama loosely based on the life of film actress Jean Harlow, with Carroll Baker in the title role. One of two feature film biographies, both released in 1965 and both with the same title, about the '30s platinum blonde movie star.
PFC Harry Devine
After the D-Day landings in June 1944, a US squadron liberates a small village in Normandy from German occupation.
Shorty Younger
The story of the country and western singer Hank Williams.
Flight Officer Simon 'Uncle Cy' Shelley
A young widow Amy Martin with three young boys is investigated by the Navy after one of her children inadvertently sends out a distress signal in Morse code by the blinds on his upstairs bedroom window. Commander Weedon and crew observe the signal from their ship and investigates. He falls for the young mother and proposes marriage. However, she is reluctant to have her family live out of a suitcase and initially declines. Gramps tries to bring her on board to sail the sea of love with the commander.
Robespierre (voice)
Mewsette is a starry-eyed cat who grows weary of life on a French farm and heads for the excitement of 1890s Paris. Her tomcat suitor, Jaune-Tom, and his furry cohort, Robespierre, chase after Mewsette, but she's already fallen under the spell of a feline modeling-school racket run by Madame Rubens-Chatte and her slimy assistant, Meowrice.
Pvt. John Steele
The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"
Donald O'Shay
Professor Fergusson plans to make aviation history by making his way across Africa by balloon. He plans to claim uncharted territories in West Africa as proof of his inventions worth.
Pockets
A group of men trap wild animals in Africa and sell them to zoos. Will the arrival of a female wildlife photographer change their ways?
MP Sergeant (uncredited)
C.R. MacNamara will do anything to get a promotion within the Coca-Cola company, including looking after boss W.P. Hazeltine's rebellious teenage daughter, Scarlett. When Scarlett visits Berlin, where C.R. is stationed, she reveals that she is married to a communist named Otto Piffl -- and C.R. recognizes that Otto's anti-establishment stance will clash with his boss's own political views, possibly jeopardizing his promotion.
Randy Sherman
A circus owner tries to keep his financially troubled circus on the road, despite the efforts of a murderous saboteur who has decided that the show must not go on.
Cpl. Chan Derby
An officer poses as a general after the death of his commanding officer and inspires his troops to victory.
Joe Kelly
Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver (Marlon Brando) is reassigned to a Japanese air base, and is confronted with US racial prejudice against the Japanese people. The issue is compounded because a number of the soldiers become romantically involved with Japanese women, in defiance of US military policy. Ordinarily an officer who is by-the-book, Gruver must take a position when a buddy of his, an enlisted man Joe Kelly (Red Buttons) falls in love with a Japanese woman Katsumi (Miyoshi Umeki) and marries her. Gruver risks his position by serving as best man at the wedding ceremony.
Himself
A compilation of scenes and acts from various comedy and musical shorts over the years.
Whitey / Andrews Sister
Pinky Scariano, Allan Ross, and Frankie Davis all join the Army Air Forces with hopes of becoming pilots. In training, they meet and become pals with Bobby Grills and Irving Miller, and the five struggle through the rigid training and grueling tests involved in becoming pilots. Not all of them succeed, and tragedy awaits for some.
