Red Buttons dead at 87

[Bombero1956]

Really enjoyed his stuff on the old Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. Funny man, never got a dinner!!

[Sapphocrat]

1. I met him once...

...and had a long chat with his son as well. Lovely man, not one fraction as hardboiled as his stage persona.

R.I.P., Red. You were very sweet to me... and to a mutual friend of ours.

[CTyankee]

2. I remember his very touching performance in "Sayonara"

and I don't really remember his comedy at all.

He was very genuine in playing the character in Sayonara. Right from the heart.

[NYCGirl]

3. I remember him from some pretty good movies like "Stagecoach" and

"Sayonara."

[Bombero1956]

6. I share a birthday with him

February 5th. I remember him from the movie "The Longest Day" where he played Private John Steele, a paratrooper that hung from a church steeple during the Normandy invasion. The whole time he hung there the bells were ringing.

[TX-RAT]

4. My favorite was Hatari

When they were trying to catch all those Monkeys.

[blogslut]

5. R,I.P. Red.

He was a trooper.

[lpbk2713]

7. First thing I thought of was ......

him hanging by his parachute shrouds from that bell tower in The Longest Day.


Red Buttons was multi-talented. He will be missed.

[JanusAscending]

8. Wasn't he the "Yucka Puck" man??

He'd sing this little "ditty" and then stop and tell a funny story, and so on, and so on!! He was Hilarious!! I was just a young kid when this was on.

[lpbk2713]

9. Straaange things are hap-penning.

Then he'd tell a one or two liner.

[JanusAscending]

12. Thanks!! Now I remember!!

And you just dated yourself too!! HA HA HA!! Nice to know that there are others than just me around here, who are going down the "other side of the Hill" !!

[lpbk2713]

13. Yep

I remember watching him on Ed Sullivan on a B&W TV with rabbit ears.

[kskiska]

10. No, that was Morey Amsterdam

I remember Red Buttons from way back in the early 50's. He had a hit novelty song, "Strange Things Are Happening."

Buttons spent several years touring and performing comedy on stage. He starred on TV's Red Buttons Show in the early 1950s, playing recurring characters in sketch comedy bits that were sometimes amusing, other times merely annoying. The show's theme song, "Ho-ho, hee-hee, haw-haw, strange things are happening!" became Buttons's catch phrase, and the program drew big ratings at first, but audiences grew weary of his schtick. After two seasons the show was cancelled, then picked up by another network, where it was soon cancelled again.

I thought he was good in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" as a marathon dancer. He really gloated after winning the Oscar for "Sayonara."

[JanusAscending]

11. RIGHT !! Sorry, I had a "CRS "moment, and you just dated yourself!!

LOL !!

[blogslut]

17. They Shoot Horses...

Heck of a film. You're right, Buttons was amazing in that. Everyone was amazing in that, even Gig Young!

[HereSince1628]

14. I liked him best in his role in Hatari.

May he rest in peace while future movie viewers long enjoy his performances!

[Spirochete]

15. The Double Life of Henry Phyfe

wasn't that the name of one of the shows he had in the 60s'? Jeez, I'm old!

[NYCGirl]

16. Here's a nice tribute to him from Harry Shearer:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-shearer/red-buttons_b_25016.html

He was a figure from an earlier age of comedy--brash, New Yorky...oh, wait, isn't that Howard Stern's act ? But Red Buttons, who was a smash hit on early CBS television, and then became a fixture on the nightclub-and-roast circuit, was funnier in his 80s than most comedians are in their 20s.

I saw him performing a couple of years ago at a friend's first wedding anniversary party. Although my colleagues and I had enjoyed chuckling at the predictability of his roast act--"I have a little list here of people who never had a dinner..."--Buttons was razor sharp, fresh, unpredictable, with the delivery of a master. Having had the privilege of seeing him so recently, I just wanted to note that his mastery remained undimmed.

[Cha]

19. How inspiring to be

so entertaining in one's 80's.

[kskiska]

20. Billy Crystal did a terrific movie about that genre -Mr. Saturday Night

…those early '50s former Catskill comics who find a brief moment of fame with their own TV show. Crystal played a composite of all those guys - Buddy Young, Jr., a not-so-nice guy, can't give it up, even in advancing years. He's relegated to doing adult diaper commercials, and condo tours, entertaining elderly people in Florida, still telling the same tired jokes.

[LittleClarkie]

18. Did he ever get a dinner?

Rest in Peace, Mr. Buttons.

[Name removed]

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