Daniel David Kaminsky was born on 18th January 1911, in Brooklyn, New York City USA, and as Danny Kaye, was an actor, comedian and singer, for many years one of the most popular comic actors in the US. He played major roles in comedies like “The Kid from Brooklyn” (1946) and “The Court Jester” (1956), and was active in the entertainment industry from 1933 to 1986; he passed away in 1987.
How much is the net worth of Danny Kaye? It has been reported by authoritative sources that the overall size of his wealth is as much as $10 million, as of the data presented in the middle of 2017.
Danny Kaye Net Worth $10 Million
To begin with, as the son of Jewish immigrants from Yekaterinoslav in the Russian Empire, he lived his childhood largely in modest circumstances. He left school at the age of 13 and learned the basics of show business in the famous resort of Borscht Belt in the Catskills. In 1933, he joined the dance couple Dave Harvey and Kathleen Young, but in their premiere, he lost his balance and the audience burst into laughter. Immediately, Kaye built this misfortune into his role, and which in the longer term of his career, saw him become truly multi-talented.
With “The Straw Hat Revue”, the red haired Kaye made his Broadway debut in 1939. The subsequent musical “Lady in the Dark” (1941) helped him to break through with the audience and agents – in 39 seconds he chattered more than fifty syllable Russian and Polish composer names in a song called “Tchaikovsky”; a similar quick talk performance was recorded on the soundtrack of “The Court Jester” (1956). During the 1950s and 1960s, Kaye continued his work in films, and in 1963 he also got his own TV show “The Danny Kaye Show”, which became a giant success and brought him an Emmy in the first year. On television, he also took on the role of Captain Hook in “Peter Pan” (1976) and Master Geppetto in “Pinocchio” (1976). On the big screen, Danny Kaye had outstanding success in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (1947) starring next to Virginia Mayo, who played his partner in many other films. In 1954, the actor experienced success in the film “White Christmas” starring beside Bing Crosby. As mentioned above, in 1956 Kaye starred in the musical comedy “The Court Jester”, for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award as the Best Motion Picture Actor – Comedy/Musical. However, the Golden Globe Award in the same category the actor won a few years later, for the role in “Me and the Colonel” (1958). In 1981, he performed with the New York Philharmonic in “An Evening with Danny Kaye” with many well known classical pieces. The show took place at the Lincoln Centre. He made his last appearance in 1986 in “The Bill Cosby Show”.
Concerning the social engagement, Kaye began his long-standing ambassadorship for UNICEF in 1959, and the same year, he received an honorary Oscar for his humanitarian commitment. He continued to work for UNICEF well into his old age. In 1982, at the 54th Academy Awards Awards, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the hands of Academy Award President Gregory Peck. He managed to collect $10 million for UNICEF during his concerts. When UNICEF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, Danny Kaye was chosen to receive it for the organization.
Finally, in the personal life of Kaye, he married Sylvia Fine in 1940; they had a daughter born in 1946. The two lived happily until his death from heart failure and internal bleeding due to hepatitis C triggered by an infected blood transfusion during a bypass operation, on 3rd March 1987 in Los Angeles, California. He is buried at the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York State.
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1982, Academy Award President Gregory Peck), Golden Globe Award as the Best Motion Picture Actor – Comedy/Musical (1959), Academy Honorary Award (1955), Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance (1964),Special Tony Award (1953)
Albums
“The Court Jester” (1956, soundtrack)
Nominations
Golden Globe Award (1952), Kennedy Center Honors (1984), Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award (1982), Peabody Award,
Movies
“The Kid from Brooklyn” (1946), “The Court Jester” (1956), “Peter Pan” (1976), “Pinocchio” (1976), “The Court Jester”, “Me and the Colonel” (1958)
TV Shows
“The Straw Hat Revue” (1939), “Lady in the Dark” (1941), “The Danny Kaye Show” (1963-1967), “See It Now with Edward R. Murrow” (1956), “An Evening with Danny Kaye”
I became an entertainer not because I wanted to but because I was meant to.
2
If you're not cooking with joy, happiness and love, you're not cooking well.
3
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]
4
Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it.
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Fact
1
Goldwyn's wife Francis Howard would often travel to New York city scouting Broadway productions, looking for talent in both the production's acting areas and the creative teams involved in a Broadway production'a staging. Francis' trip (1941) to see the Kurt Weill-Ira Gershwin-Moss Hart musical "Lady in The Dark" -- she discovered Danny Kaye. Returning to Hollywood, Francis' ability to mint new stars from seemingly nowhere, Francis insisting her Husband, Samuel Goldwyn, put Danny Kaye under contract. After Danny Kaye arrived in Hollywood, several screen tests were made, studied, to determine the best possible path for Danny Kaye's future in Goldwyn's film business. The major problem with Kaye's physical look, besides his nose, was his natural dark-brown hair. Francis, upon seeing Kaye's screen tests, dictated to her husband -- "they had to change his hair color!" Francis was the one who said, "turn Danny into a red headed strawberry blond!" Goldwyn's studio press agent always insisted Danny Kaye's strawberry-blond hair was his natural hair color for publicity reckoning.
2
Danny Kaye 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.
3
Kaye's daughter Dena has revealed that his birth certificate indicates that he was born in 1911, not 1913 as Kaye had publicly claimed, and that no one in the family knows why he made this alteration to his age.
4
His trademark red hair was his natural color, but he was persuaded to dye it blond because it looked better that way in Technicolor. Studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn Jr. also had asked Danny to get his nose fixed so it would look less Jewish, but he refused.
5
In 1942 Kaye was hospitalized for nervous exhaustion.
6
Kaye made his acting debut playing a watermelon sees in a school play at Brooklyn's P.S. 149.
7
Shirley MacLaine claims she had romance with Danny Kaye in her 2011 memoir, "I'm Over That And Other Confessions.".
8
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.
Conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra at New York's Carnegie Hall (10th March 1958) with his feet! This being a benefit concert, of course.
11
He awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6125 Hollywood Boulevard; for Motion Pictures at 6563 Hollywood Boulevard; and for Radio at 6101 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
12
He was a liberal Democrat who opposed the Hollywood blacklist.
13
While he was world famous for his comic acting ability, his last film appearance, Skokie (1981), in which he portrayed a Holocaust survivor protesting a planned march by Neo-Nazis, was one of only two dramatic film roles he played - the other was the role of the Ragpicker in the 1969 film The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), starring Katharine Hepburn. Danny played in two other dramatic movies: The Colonel and Me and The Five Pennies.
14
The stage musical "The Kid from Brooklyn," which chronicled Kaye's life, implied a tempestuous affair with his radio co-star Eve Arden.
15
On April 21,1954, he was appointed UNICEF's Ambassador at Large, and made a 40,000 mile good-will trip, which resulted in the short, Assignment Children.
His father, Jacob Kaminski; his mother, Clar; and his two older brothers, Mack and Larry, emigrated from Ukraine to the United States in 1910. Jacob had to work two years before he could pay off those steamer tickets. Three years after this journey, their third and last child was born, and the only one born in America: David Daniel, or as his parents called him: Duvidelleh.
22
He was an excellent pilot.
23
He was Bob Hope's and Humphrey Bogart's favorite comedian.
24
He had a passion for Chinese cooking and built a kitchen in his house. For years, he invited people (some of them great celebrities like Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Cary Grant, John Denver, and Itzhak Perlman) and he would show them what his cooking genius was about. Qualified guests, like French chef Paul Bocuse, said they were really amazed by Kaye's cooking ability.
25
In 1953, received a Special Tony Award for heading a variety bill at the Palace Theater.
26
According to daughter Dena Kaye, for the rest of his life, whenever someone would recognize him in public, they would run up to him and recite the "pellet with the poison . . . " speech from The Court Jester (1955).
27
Was named as "King of Brooklyn" at the Welcome Back to Brooklyn Festival in 1986
28
Was the first choice of producers to star in the Broadway musical "The Music Man."
29
Star of CBS Radio's "The Danny Kaye Show" (1945-1946).
30
Died of hepatitis and internal bleeding, the result of a transfusion of contaminated blood during bypass heart surgery four years earlier.
31
Toured Australia in the mid-'50s as Cinderella's friend Buttons in a pantomime version of "Cinderella".
32
Interred at Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York, USA.
33
While appearing in the musical "Two By Two" (1970-1971), he tore ligaments and played the role of Noah in a wheelchair since he did not use understudies.
34
One of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners professional baseball team.
TV Movie documentary performer: "Thumbelina" - uncredited
Fallout 3
2008
Video Game performer: "Civilization"
Nip/Tuck
2008
TV Series performer - 1 episode
The Man Who Drove with Mandela
1999
Documentary performer: "Life Could Not Better Be", "Civilization Bongo Bongo Bongo"
Hotel in Kopenhagen
1984
TV Movie performer: "Wonderful Copenhagen" - uncredited
Live from Lincoln Center
1981
TV Series performer - 1 episode
The Muppet Show
1978
TV Series performer - 1 episode
Here Comes Peter Cottontail
1971
TV Movie performer: "If I Could Only Get Back to Yesterday", "In the Puzzle of Life"
The Danny Kaye Show
1963-1967
TV Series performer - 65 episodes
On the Double
1961
performer: "Darlin' Meggie" 1961, "Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag And Smile, Smile, Smile" 1915 uncredited, "When the Saints Go Marching In" uncredited, "Coctails for Two" 1934 uncredited
The Five Pennies
1959
"Lullaby in Ragtime" 1959, "Carnival of Venice" ca 1829, uncredited / performer: "The Five Pennies" 1959, "Follow the Leader" 1959, "Lullaby in Ragtime" 1959, "When the Saints Go Marching In" 1896, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" 1862 uncredited, " Back Home Again in Indiana" 1917 uncredited, "The Music Goes Round and Round" 1935 uncredited, "Jingle Bells" 1857 uncredited, "Largo al factotum" 1816 uncredited, "Schnitzelbank" uncredited
Merry Andrew
1958
performer: "Chin Up, Stout Fellow" 1958, "Everything Is Tickety Boo" 1958, "The Pipes of Pan" 1958, "Salud" 1958, "The Square of the Hypotenuse" 1958, "You Can't Always Have What You Want" 1958 - uncredited
The Court Jester
1955
performer: "The Maladjusted Jester", "Life Could Not Better Be", "Outfox the Fox", "I'll Take You Dreaming", "My Heart Knows a Love Song", "Life Could Not Better Be Reprise"
White Christmas
1954
"White Christmas", "Sisters", uncredited / performer: "The Old Man", "Hi Hup", "Heat Wave", "Blue Skies", "The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing", "Snow", "Minstrel Show", "Mandy", "Choreography", "Gee! I Wish I Was Back in the Army", "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" - uncredited
Knock on Wood
1954
performer: "Knock on Wood" 1953, "All About You" 1953, "Monahan O'Han" 1953, "End of Spring" 1953 - uncredited
Hans Christian Andersen
1952
performer: "The King's New Clothes" 1952, "Inchworm" 1952, "I'm Hans Christian Andersen" 1952, "Wonderful Copenhagen" 1952, "Thumbelina" 1952, "Dream Ballet" 1952, "The Ugly Duckling" 1952, "Anywhere I Wander" 1952, "Fantasy Wedding Sequence" 1952, "No Two People" 1952 - uncredited
On the Riviera
1951
performer: "On the Riviera", "Rhythm of a New Romance", "Popo the Puppet", "Happy Ending", "Chica Chica Boom Chic" uncredited, "Ballin' the Jack" 1913 uncredited
The Inspector General
1949
performer: "The Medicine Show" 1949, "The Inspector General" 1949, "Soliloquy for Three Heads" 1949, "Happy Times" 1949, "Gypsy Drinking Song" 1949, "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" 1780? - uncredited
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
1947
performer: "The Words and Music for" "Symphony for Unstrung Tongue", "The Words and Music for" "Anatole of Paris"
The Kid from Brooklyn
1946
performer: "Pavlova" 1939
Book Revue
1946
Short performer: "Carolina in the Morning", "La Cucaracha", "Ochi Tchornya Dark Eyes" - uncredited