RIP, Red Buttons

Famed comedian -- and former Oscar winner -- has passed away.

He was 87.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=2188739

 

His prime was a good ways before my time, but I've seen enough to know he was funnier than most of today's comedians could ever dream of being.

 

Viva Knievel!

 

The man could also act, witness him in They Shoot Horses, Don't They.

He rates an RIP.

 

I had no idea the fellow was still alive. But RIP.

 

Great actor. Last role was a memorable one when he played an elderly gentleman on "ER."

 

And he never got a dinner.
(Ancient Dean Martin roast reference there.)
He was also great in The Longest Day, as the paratrooper who got snagged in the steeple.

 

John Wayne: ``Do you read me?''

Red Buttons: ``Loud and clear, sir!''

And you beat me to the ``never got a dinner'' line.

 

Mr Bastard,

You beat me to it again.

Incredible that he was still alive. I look at those ads for DM Roast videos ... I think everybody but Ali is dead. Hope, Berle, Ball (or as Milty introduced her at the profanity-free Friars club, Lucille Testicle), Cosell, Wilt, Gleason, Buttons, Youngman, Sammy Davis Jr, Foster Brooks, and others. P-Diller still with us I guess, ha, ha, ha. Did Joey Bishop go to the Great Talk Show Couch in the Sky?

YHS, etc

 

Phyllis and Joey are still alive.

I hate to quibble on an RIP thread, but I will anyway. I don't think you can be a former Oscar winner, can you? That would be like being a former graduate of (insert school name here).

 

Or a former Heisman Trophy winner.

 

How funny was Red Buttons? Consider:

He traditionally closed the show as the final "roaster" at any Friars' Club roast he attended. Inasmuch as the dais routinely included some of the funniest comics in the biz, that's quite a standing tribute by his peers.