LOS ANGELES, July 13 (UPI) -- Oscar-winning actor and comic Red Buttons died Thursday at 87, following a long battle with vascular disease, his publicist said.
Buttons died at his Los Angeles home, said publicist Warren Cowan.
Buttons, whose real name was Aaron Chwatt, touched millions during his nearly 70-year career, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The star of the short-lived "The Red Buttons Show" and the creator of the popular "Ho Ho Song," Buttons entertained fans on the Burlesque stage, TV, Broadway and the silver screen.
He won an Oscar and a Golden Globe in 1957 for his performance in "Sayonara" as a U.S. enlisted man in stationed in Japan during the Korean Waar, who marries his Japanese sweetheart in defiance of a military policy forbidding interracial marriage.
The Academy of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences honored his as Comedian of the Year in 1954.
"I love to make 'em laugh. I love to hear 'em laugh. I love to entertain," the comedian was once quoted as saying, "That's my life. It's always been my life."
