Biography

Danny Kaye

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Overview

Born
January 18, 1911 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Died
March 3, 1987 · Los Angeles, California, USA (heart failure)
Birth name
David Daniel Kaminski
Height
5′ 11″ (1.80 m)

Mini bio

Danny Kaye left school at the age of 13 to work in the so-called Borscht Belt of Jewish resorts in the Catskill Mountains. It was there he learned the basics of show biz. From there he went through a series of jobs in and out of the business. In 1939, he made his Broadway debut in "Straw Hat Revue," but it was the stage production of the musical "Lady in the Dark" in 1940 that brought him acclaim and notice from agents. Also in 1940, he married Sylvia Fine, who went on to manage his career. She helped create the routines and gags, and wrote most of the songs that he performed. Danny could sing and dance like many others, but his specialty was reciting those tongue-twisting songs and monologues.

Samuel Goldwyn had been trying to sign Kaye to a movie contract for two years before he eventually agreed. Goldwyn put him in a series of Technicolor musicals, starting with Up in Arms (1944). His debut was successful, and he continued to make hit movies such as The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and The Inspector General (1949). In 1954, he appeared with Bing Crosby in White Christmas (1954), which was based on the Irving Berlin song of the same name. In 1955, he made what many consider his best comedy, The Court Jester (1955), with the brilliant Pellet with the Poison routine. Like all things, however, the lifespan of a comedian is limited and his movie career waned. In 1960, he began doing specials on television and this led to his own TV series, The Danny Kaye Show (1963), which ran from 1963 to 1967.

Some of his last roles were also his most memorable, such as an intense Holocaust survivor in Skokie (1981) and as a kind but goofy dentist in an episode of The Cosby Show (1984). He also worked tirelessly for UNICEF.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents
Relatives

Trademark

Red hair
Able to tongue twist faster than anyone else

Trivia

One of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners professional baseball team.
In an interview with Kaye's daughter Dena Kaye, she recalled that whenever her father was approached by a fan, he or she would invariably ask for Kaye to recite the dialogue of the famously difficult tongue twister "The Vessel With The Pestle" from the movie The Court Jester (1955). Kaye never refused and recited it verbatim.
He had a passion for Chinese cooking and built a kitchen in his house. For years, he invited people (some of them celebrities like Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Cary Grant, John Denver and Itzhak Perlman) and would show them what his cooking genius was about. Qualified guests like French chef Paul Bocuse said they were amazed by his cooking ability.
Held a commercial pilot's certificate with the following ratings: Airplane Single and Multiengine Land & Instrument Airplane. In addition, he held type ratings to act as Pilot-in-Command of two small business class jets: The LR-Jet (Learjet 20 & 30 series)and the IA-Jet.
In an article in "Look" magazine he related that once while flying over Kansas he correctly diagnosed a pain in his right side as appendicitis. He landed at the nearest airfield and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. He said he was told that a delay of even a half-hour might have resulted in the appendix rupturing.

Quotes

Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it.
You bet I arrived overnight. Over a few hundred nights in the Catskills, in vaudeville, in clubs and on Broadway. [on being an overnight film success in the 1940s]
If you're not cooking with joy, happiness and love, you're not cooking well.
I became an entertainer not because I wanted to but because I was meant to.