Victor Borge

Pianist, composer, songwriter, entertainer and actor, educated at Borgerdydskolen and the Conservatory of Copenhagen. He studied with Egon Petri and Frederic Lammond. His concert career began in 1922, and he performed in a musical revue in 1934, and in films by 1937.

Arriving in the US in 1940, he made his American radio debut on the Bing Crosby show. He was featured in his own one-man show "Comedy in Music", plus concert appearances throughout the USA and Europe.

He hosted the first US telecast of the Danny Kaye film, Hans Christian Andersen (1952).

In 1953, he starred in the one-man Broadway production "Comedy in Music", with which he toured off and on until his retirement. This was a show in which Borge often announced he was going to play a piece, but seldom actually got around to doing it because of his hilarious comments to the audience. The show went through several editions over the years, but always retained some of the same comic remarks.

He was the voiceover artist for the Heineken beer adverts in the UK during the 1970s. 'Heineken does this because it refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach.'

Recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation in 1986.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald S. Smith, pg. 57-58. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Recipient of 22nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime contribution to arts and culture, presented by President Bill Clinton in Washington, DC, Dec. 5, 1999.