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Danny Kaye
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==Personal life== [[File:Sylvia and Danny Kaye 1945.jpg|thumb|left|Sylvia and Danny Kaye, 1945]] 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.<ref name=Met>{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JeAbAAAAIBAJ&pg=2702,4987848| title=A team grew in Brooklyn| date=April 25, 1975| newspaper=[[The Dispatch (Lexington)|The Dispatch]]| location=Lexington, North Carolina| access-date=March 10, 2011}}</ref> Sylvia was an audition pianist.<ref name=Wife/><ref name=Fine>{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pfxTAAAAIBAJ&pg=538,1883597| title=Composer Sylvia Fine Can Write Anywhere Anytime| author=Boyle, Hal| date=August 27, 1959| newspaper=[[St. Joseph News-Press]]| access-date=November 27, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=27pGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4524,4626774| title=Kaye at the Met| date=April 25, 1975| newspaper=The Evening News| location=Newburgh, N.Y.| access-date=November 27, 2010}}</ref> Sylvia discovered that Danny had worked for her father Samuel Fine, a dentist.<ref name=Time/> Kaye, working in Florida, proposed on the telephone; they were married in [[Fort Lauderdale]]<ref>{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yk8yAAAAIBAJ&pg=6116,1463811| title=Who Is Sylvia? What Is She? β Danny Kaye's Inspiration| author=Raymer, Dorothy| date=November 6, 1945| newspaper=[[The Miami News]]| access-date=January 14, 2011}}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> on January 3, 1940.<ref name="Obit">{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Cw4bAAAAIBAJ&pg=4302,6871133| title=Film producer, songwriter Sylvia Fine Kaye dies at 78| date=October 29, 1991| newspaper=[[The Daily News (Kentucky)|The Daily News]]| location=Bowling Green, Ky.| access-date=November 27, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8243280/danny_kaye_to_tv/| title=It Happened Last Night| author=Wilson, Earl| date=July 2, 1959| page=4| newspaper=[[The Herald-Standard|The Morning Herald]]| location=Uniontown, Pennsylvania| access-date=January 8, 2017| via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> They were married for life, except for a separation in 1947 and 1948, when Kaye was involved with [[Eve Arden]].<ref name="TCM Review">{{cite web| url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/118153| title=A Song Is Born| website=[[Turner Classic Movies]]| access-date=September 8, 2012}}</ref> The couple's only child, daughter Dena, was born on December 17, 1946.<ref name=TV/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pCxaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6459,3561608 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130821073003/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pCxaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JkwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6459,3561608&dq=danny+kaye&hl=en |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 21, 2013 |title=Danny Kaye Awaits Christmas Bulletin On Maternity Front |first=Louella |last=Parsons |date=July 28, 1946 |newspaper=[[The Post and Courier|The News and Courier]] |location=Charleston, South Carolina |access-date=January 14, 2011}}</ref> When she was very young, Dena did not like seeing her father perform because she did not understand that people were supposed to laugh at what he did.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ywwrAAAAIBAJ&pg=6191,2517594 |title=A Woman's New York |author=Hughes, Alice |date=January 28, 1953 |newspaper=[[Reading Eagle]] |access-date=March 10, 2011}}</ref> Kaye said in a 1954 interview, "Whatever she wants to be she will be without interference from her mother nor from me."<ref name=Life>{{cite news |title=Danny Kaye Looks at Life |author=Perry, Lawrence |date=May 9, 1954 |newspaper=[[The Milwaukee Journal]]}}</ref><ref name=Writer>{{cite news |title=Travel writer attends party saluting hotel |author=Boyd, Joseph G. |date=May 23, 1980 |newspaper=[[The Milwaukee Sentinel]]}}</ref> Dena grew up to become a journalist.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/music/on-100th-anniversary-of-danny-kaye-s-birth-daughter-dena-seeks-to-spread-his-legacy-1.100402 |title=On 100th anniversary of Danny Kaye's birth, daughter Dena seeks to spread his legacy |first=Nekesa Mumbi |last=Moody |newspaper=[[Times Colonist]] |location=Victoria, B.C. |date=March 29, 2013 |access-date=November 12, 2017}}</ref> [[Donald Spoto]], the author of ''Laurence Olivier'' (HarperCollins), made an unsubstantiated claim that Kaye had a 10-year secret affair with [[Laurence Olivier]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-02-25-9201180102-story.html |title=The Other Olivier |date=February 25, 1992 |first=Richard |last=Christiansen |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |language=en-US |access-date=October 17, 2023}}</ref> Despite media rumor since that book's publication, no evidence has been published. English journalist Terry Coleman, who spent four years studying Olivier's archive of letters and memorabilia, could not find evidence of such an affair between Kaye and Olivier. Coleman observed, "I did check it and talked to a number of people. In this mountain of material in the archives, I could not find a hint of an affair with Danny Kaye."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-dec-31-et-olivier31-story.html |title=Laurence Olivier detailed, to the letter |date=December 31, 2005 |first=Bob |last=Thomas |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |access-date=February 19, 2020}}</ref> On January 18, 2013, during a 24-hour salute to Kaye on [[Turner Classic Movies]] in celebration of what TCM thought was his 100th birthday, Kaye's daughter Dena revealed to TCM host [[Ben Mankiewicz]] that Kaye's stated birth year of 1913 was incorrect, and that he was actually born in 1911.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2012-dec-02-la-et-mn-danny-kaye-classic-hollywood-20121203-story.html |title=Getting reacquainted with Danny Kaye |date=December 2, 2012 |first=Susan |last=King |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US|access-date=October 14, 2019}}</ref> [[File:Danny Kaye 9 Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|right|Kaye in 1986 by [[Allan Warren]]]] A lifelong [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]], he supported [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]]'s campaign during the [[1952 United States presidential election|1952 presidential election]].<ref>''Motion Picture and Television Magazine''. November 1952, page 33.</ref> Kaye was the [[godparent|godfather]] of actress [[Mary Louise Weller]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/439127432/ |title=Playright's Advice Credited in Success| date=August 29, 1982| page=4TV| newspaper=[[The Victoria Advocate]]| via=Newspapers.com | access-date=October 18, 2023| url-access=subscription}}</ref> ===Health and death=== In 1983, Kaye had quadruple bypass heart surgery and contracted [[hepatitis C]] from a blood transfusion.<ref name="Star"/><ref name="Gazette">{{cite news| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9dQ0AAAAIBAJ&pg=5772,634574| title=Actor-comedian Danny Kaye dies| date=March 3, 1987| newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]| access-date=December 15, 2010}}</ref> He died at [[Cedars-Sinai Medical Center]] in the early morning hours of March 3, 1987, aged 76, from complications of heart failure, internal bleeding, and hepatitis C.<ref name="fool">{{cite book| title=Nobody's Fool: The Lives of Danny Kaye| last=Gottfried| first=Martin| publisher=Simon & Schuster| year=1994| isbn=978-0-6718-6494-1| location=New York| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_x1y9}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/04/obituaries/danny-kaye-limber-limbed-commedian-dies.html| title=Danny Kaye, Limber-Limbed Comedian, Dies| newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| last=Pace| first=Eric| date = March 4, 1987| accessdate=July 14, 2023| page=A1| url-access=subscription}}</ref>
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