DANNY KAYE THE COURT JESTER PICS FREE

He entertained troops from WWII to Korea and Vietnam and was devoted to the young state of Israel. He traded the baton for a fly swatter to conduct The Flight of the Bumblebee. He got a 'sound' that was highly praised by noted critics, musicians and conductors. He raised close to $6 million, mostly for musicians' pension funds, without ever accepting a fee for his services. In 1965, he joined UNICEF's official delegation in Oslo when the organization received the Nobel Peace Prize.ĭanny Kaye couldn't read a note of music-he learned the scores by ear-but he regularly conducted world-famous orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic. He received two honorary Oscars for his humanitarian work, including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1982. He rubbed noses, made funny noises, crawled on the floor and danced with lepers. 'He related to children with a child's lack of inhibition', said his daughter Dena. As UNICEF's first Goodwill Ambassador, a post he cherished until the end of his life, Kaye was a role model for celebrities to support a charity. 'I am not so much amused,' said the great pianist Arthur Rubinstein, 'as I am moved'. He was graceful, playful and elegant, even when zany. He held your soul in the palm of his hand.

DANNY KAYE THE COURT JESTER PICS FREE

He was a disciplined free spirit, a master of foreign accents and a double talk known only to him. He rattled off riddles, like the legendary 'vessel with the pestle' from The Court Jester. He was an actor who danced, (he performed a role originally slated for Fred Astaire in White Christmas) and a dancer who sang. Life magazine called his reception at the London Palladium 'worshipful hysteria'.Ī successful recording artist, Kaye also broke records in supper clubs. He was a box-office magnet on the one-man concert stage. Unique among show business headliners, he starred on Broadway and made such film classics as White Christmas, Hans Christian Andersen, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Court Jester. If versatility, skill, passion and joy are necessary elements of genius, then Danny Kaye deservedly ranks among that elite class.

It would have been stretching credibility far past the breaking point'.Ī virtuoso entertainer, UNICEF's first Goodwill Ambassador to the world's children (1954), a Renaissance man who was a jet pilot, baseball owner, master Chinese chef, symphony orchestra conductor, a performer honored with Oscars, Emmys, Peabodys, Golden Globes, the French Legion of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Danny Kaye was one of a kind. 'If Danny Kaye had not been born,' a Hollywood writer once observed, 'no one could possibly have invented him. Entertainer, Humanitarian, Renaissance Man

Danny kaye the court jester pics