| Birth: | Jan. 3, 1909
Copenhagen, Denmark | | Death: | Dec. 23, 2000
Connecticut, USA | 
Pianist, Symphony Conductor, Composer, Comedian, Entertainer, Actor. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of Bernhard and Frederikke Rosenbaum he was named Børge. Educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music he had his piano debut in 1926. He became one of Denmark's most popular artists in the 1930's and while he started his career as a classical pianist, his talent for making the audience laugh was obvious which led to his developing a unique blend of humor and music. His film debut was in 1937. Børge publicly derided Hitler, and narrowly escaped to America in 1940 when the Germans invaded Denmark, acquiring an America visa since he was married to an American woman. Although he didn't speak English, he attended movies every day to pick up the language and managed to translate his own brand of humor and performed for the first time on radio with Bing Crosby in 1941. He became and American citizen in 1948, and had his own one-man show, "Comedy in Music," at The Golden Theater, New York City from 1953-56. Joining ASCAP in 1961, he composed "Blue Serenade." He was the recipient of the 22nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime contribution to arts and culture, presented by President Clinton in Washington, D.C. in 1999. One of his famous skits involves "phonetic punctuation", in which he accents commas, question marks and periods with sound effects. Co-author of "My Favorite Intermissions" (1971) and "My Favorite Comedies in Music" (1981). He had one child by his first wife from whom he was divorced and four children by his second wife to whom he was married from 1953 until her death in 2000. He loved to say "And I wish to remind you that the smile is the shortest distance between people, and the more we smile, the less we fight. Because to my knowledge, no one ever fought smilingly...and won. So not good-bye, then. Never good-bye. Just... so long." (bio by: D C McJonathan-Swarm)
Search Amazon for Victor Borge | | | Burial:
Western Jewish Cemetery
Copenhagen
Hovedstaden, Denmark
Plot: *Half of cremated remains. Section 8, row D, No. 53/55 |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: Erik Skytte
Record added: Jan 16, 2009
Find A Grave Memorial# 32955500 |
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