Red Buttons, 1919 - 2006.

Boy, this is not a good week for celebrities. Now, Oscar winner Red Buttons (for Sayonara) has passed away at 87.

Edward Copeland lists and adds notes to a few highlights of his long career.

With his eager manner and rapid-fire wit, Buttons excelled in every phase of show business, from the Borscht Belt of the 1930s to celebrity roasts in the 1990s.

[...]

The Red Buttons Show was first broadcast on CBS Oct. 14, 1952... Buttons drew on all his past experience for monologues, songs, dances and sketches featuring such characters as a punch-drunk fighter, a scrappy street kid, a Sad Sack GI and a blundering German. The hit of the show was a silly song in which he pranced about the stage singing, "Ho! Ho!... He! He!... Ha! Ha!... Strange things are happening!" It became a national craze.

Bob Thomas for the AP.

Posted by dwhudson at July 13, 2006 1:48 PM