Danny Kaye

Danny Kaye (1913-1987), American comedian, singer, dancer, and musician, known for his talents of mimicry, the imitation of speech accents, and for using broad physical gestures to entertain. His stage and motion-picture performances were especially popular during the 1940s and 1950s.

Born David Daniel Kominski in New York City, Kaye began his entertainment career at the age of 13 with performances at Catskill Mountain resorts in New York. After spending several years touring and performing throughout the United States, he gained popularity for his rapid delivery of complicated lyrics in the Broadway musical Lady in the Dark (1941). Under contract to American producer Samuel Goldwyn, Kaye appeared in such films as Up in Arms (1944), Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), A Song Is Born (1948), and Hans Christian Andersen (1952). Kaye often portrayed dual characters or performed in multiple-personality roles. He later appeared with American actor Bing Crosby in White Christmas (1954) and was praised for his performance in The Court Jester (1956).

Kaye made only a few motion pictures in later years, concentrating his energies instead on television appearances, including the program “The Danny Kaye Show” (1963-1967); charity work, especially for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); and his co-ownership of the Seattle Mariners major league baseball team, in which he had a financial stake from 1977 to 1981.

Throughout his career Kaye collaborated with American lyricist Sylvia Fine, who wrote most of his distinctive songs and whom he married in 1940. He received two special Academy Awards: one in 1954”for his unique talents [and] service to the Academy, the motion picture industry, and the American people,” and one in 1981 as the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. His last notable screen appearance was as a Holocaust survivor in the television movie Skokie (1981).