AP-Obit-Buttons (Tops)
Red Buttons dead at 87
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Veteran comedian and actor Red Buttons is dead at 87.
Buttons began as the youngest comic in burlesque. He honed his technique telling jokes at the old hotels in New York's Catskill Mountains, and wound up as a T-V and movie star.
It wasn't always the jokes that got him good reviews. He won the best supporting actor Oscar in 1957, for the film ``Sayonara,'' playing a sergeant whose romance with a woman in occupied Japan ends tragically. The award led to roles in other films, including ``The Longest Day.'' A year ago he was nominated for a guest spot on T-V's ``E-R.''
But he was never far from his comedy roots. Buttons got his own weekly T-V show back in 1952.** Two decades later he was a fixture on the old Dean Martin Celebrity roasts.
His publicist says Red Button had vascular disease and had been ill for some time when he died in his Los Angeles area home.
**It only lasted two years, I believe -- oldschooler1
Red Buttons dead at 87
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Veteran comedian and actor Red Buttons is dead at 87.
Buttons began as the youngest comic in burlesque. He honed his technique telling jokes at the old hotels in New York's Catskill Mountains, and wound up as a T-V and movie star.
It wasn't always the jokes that got him good reviews. He won the best supporting actor Oscar in 1957, for the film ``Sayonara,'' playing a sergeant whose romance with a woman in occupied Japan ends tragically. The award led to roles in other films, including ``The Longest Day.'' A year ago he was nominated for a guest spot on T-V's ``E-R.''
But he was never far from his comedy roots. Buttons got his own weekly T-V show back in 1952.** Two decades later he was a fixture on the old Dean Martin Celebrity roasts.
His publicist says Red Button had vascular disease and had been ill for some time when he died in his Los Angeles area home.
**It only lasted two years, I believe -- oldschooler1