Written By Jason LockardAs a way to celebrate the amazing performers of yesteryear, we here at Classic Cinema Magazine have created the Silver Screen Spotlight Award. A monthly spotlight on an actor or actress. Well, it is the first of the month and it's time for the next awardee, Danny Kaye.
David Daniel Kaminsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 18, 1911 (though he would say 1913 1913). His parents were Jacob and Clara Kaminsky Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Danny was the youngest of three sons, he was their only son born in the United States.
Danny's mother passed away when he was in his early teens. While attending Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, after his mother's death, Kaye and his friend Louis left Brooklyn and went to Florida. The two started an act with Kaye singing and Louis playing the guitar. When Danny returned to New York, his father supported him to discover his abilities.
Danny would work a few jobs during his early life including; a soda jerk, auto insurance investigator, office clerk and an errand boy for a dentist. While most jobs ended in his firing.
In 1933 Danny joined the Three Terpsichoreans, a vaudeville dance act. He would continue in Vaudeville performing, then in 1935 he made his film debut in the comedy short Moon Over Manhattan. Then in 1944 Danny Kaye went to work for producer Samuel Goldwyn, He would star in five pictures, Up in Arms, Wonder Man, The Kid from Brooklyn, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and A Song Is Born. Warner Archive has made a 4 movie release of Danny Kaye The Goldwyn Years read our review of that release here. But in 1955 he starred in the film he is probably most known for, The Court Jester.
In the film, he plays a former carnival performer Hubert Hawkins along with a maid Jean they are assigned to protect the infant royal heir from tyrannical King Roderick I. While Jean takes the baby to an abbey, Hawkins gains access to the court by impersonating the king's jester, unaware that the jester is really an assassin hired by scheming Sir Ravenhurst. When Princess Gwendolyn falls for Hawkins, a witch secretly aids him in becoming a knight.
Kaye and Sylvia Fine grew up in Brooklyn, living a few blocks apart, but they did not meet until they were working on an off-Broadway show in 1939. It wasn't long after in 1940 they eloped. The couple's only child, daughter Dena, was born on December 17, 1946. The couple were married for life except for a separation in 1947 and 1948, when Kaye was involved with Eve Arden.
Danny Kaye would not only star in many films, but he would also perform in radio and TV. He truly was a renaissance man. And Entertainer's Entertainer. Danny would win Golden Globe Awards for best actor and many other awards too numerous to announce. He received three stars in the Hollywood Walk of fame for his work in film, TV and Radio.
Danny Kaye died of heart failure on March 3, 1987, at the age of 76, brought on by internal bleeding and complications of hepatitis C. He contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion from his quadruple bypass heart surgery in February 1983. Kaye was cremated and his ashes were interred in the foundation of a bench erected in Kensico Cemetery located in Valhalla, New York.
While Danny Kaye has passed on his genius lives on forever in his work in film, TV and Radio. If you would like to add The Danny Kaye Goldwyn Years to your collection head over to Amazon.com or if you want to add The Court Jester on DVD by going to Amazon.com.
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