Danny Kaye, orig. David Daniel Kaminski, (born Jan. 18, 1913, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died March 3, 1987, Los Angeles, Calif.), U.S. actor and comedian. He worked as a comic busboy in Catskills resorts from age 13 and later worked in vaudeville and nightclubs, developing his trademark pantomimes, rapid-fire nonsense songs, and physical antics. He was a success on Broadway in The Straw Hat Revue (1939) and Lady in the Dark (1940), in which he upstaged the legendary Gertrude Lawrence. His movie debut in Up in Arms (1944) was followed by starring roles in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), and White Christmas (1954). He starred on television in The Danny Kaye Show (1963–67). Much of his comedy material was written by his wife, Sylvia Fine. Kaye was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1955. He began his long association with UNICEF in 1953 and logged thousands of miles (frequently piloting his own plane) on behalf of the organization. He was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1982 and the French Legion of Honour in 1986.
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Academy Award Summary
Academy Award, any of a number of awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, located in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., to recognize achievement in the film industry. The awards were first presented in 1929, and winners receive a gold-plated statuette commonly
cabaret Summary
Cabaret, restaurant that serves liquor and offers a variety of musical entertainment. The cabaret probably originated in France in the 1880s as a small club in which the audience was grouped around a platform. The entertainment at first consisted of a series of amateur acts linked together by a
acting Summary
Acting, the performing art in which movement, gesture, and intonation are used to realize a fictional character for the stage, for motion pictures, or for television. (Read Lee Strasberg’s 1959 Britannica essay on acting.) Acting is generally agreed to be a matter less of mimicry, exhibitionism, or
comedy Summary
Comedy, type of drama or other art form the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse. It is contrasted on the one hand with tragedy and on the other with farce, burlesque, and other forms of humorous amusement. The classic conception of comedy, which began with Aristotle in