Borge, Victor (1909-2000)

Danish-born US pianist and comedian. His Broadway show Comedy in Music, which ran for 849 performances 1953-56, was the longest-running one-person show in US theatrical history, and he continued to perform it all over the world until the 1980s. One of his acts involved indicating punctuation marks by different sounds.

Borge was born in Copenhagen, the son of a Russian Jewish violinist, and had a successful career as an entertainer before leaving for the USA in 1940, the year Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany. By 1945 he had his own Victor Borge Show on NBC radio. In the 1970s he was guest conductor for several major orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. He published an autobiography, My Favourite Intermissions, in 1971.

In December 1999 he received the Kennedy Center Honors award for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.