In 1952, The Red Buttons Show was widely acclaimed as the most promising new show on television, and its star was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. Millions of children did their versions of Buttons's theme song, hopping and singing "Ho! Ho!, He! He!, Ha! Ha! … Strange things are happening." Indeed, strange things did happen. By the end of the second season the show's popularity had declined and CBS dropped it. It did no better when NBC briefly picked up the show the following season. Buttons was out of work in 1957 when he was selected to play the role of Sergeant Joe Kelly in the film Sayonara. He won an Academy Award as best supporting actor for this tragic portrayal and went on to appear in 24 other movies.

Born Aaron Chwatt in the Bronx borough of New York City in 1919 and raised on the...