Buttons won the Academy Award for best-supporting-role in the film "Sayonara" with Marlon Brando in 1958.
Buttons, whose real name was Aaron Chwatt died of circulation problems he had suffered from for several years.
Born in New York, Button took his name from the buttons on his uniform while a waiter at Dinty Moore's Tavern.
In the 1950s, he lent his name to his own television program, "The Red Buttons Show," when his catchphrase, "strange things are happening" entered the US lexicon.
After playing the role of a pilot in "Sayonara," the tragic story of love
between a US soldier and a Japanese woman during the Korean War, he received many more calls from Hollywood studios.
He also starred in "Hatari!," "The Longest Day," "The Poseidon Adventure," "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," and "Pete's Dragon."
He married three times and had two children.