Danish-American pianist, humorist actor, composer, writer and director, one of the most popular entertainers in theater history. His brand of musical mayhem has resulted in years and years of concert engagements. He was honored in October 1986 with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, one of 83 Americans descended from immigrants who were honored for their contribution to the U.S.
Borge was the youngest of five boys born to a dad who was first violinist with Copenhagen’s Royal Theater. Introduced to the piano at three, Borge made his concert debut at ten in his native Denmark. He played seriously, though his friends knew him as a parlor comedian. In 1931 a new career opened up when he substituted for the star of an amateur show for which he had already written the music. His flair for comedy had began to surface at 14, becoming an irreverent wit that evolved into a talent for satirizing the Nazi party. By 1940, this was not a commercially viable talent, so Borge, by then a star of Danish movies and musical comedies, found himself emigrating to the U.S. with his wife.
Penniless when he arrived, Borge later remarked that he was born again in 1940. He learned English at age 31 by going to movies, and found a job as a warm-up comedian for Bing Crosby’s radio show. After 56 weeks, he had his own show. Since then, he also has become an author and parlayed a poultry ranch into a million-dollar business.
Borge felt that it had all come easily. He has always been his own promoter and his own doer, and as a self-made man, he has accumulated a great fortune. His only regret is that his parents were never able to participate in his American life as his dad was 60 when Victor was born. He has a simple recipe for his music and comedy. “I stop playing when I have something to talk about, and when I have nothing to say, I start playing again – enough to keep the audience occupied.” He has always been self-confident and his sense of humor has always seemed spontaneous. If he drops his music, he picks it up and puts it on the piano and begins to play the song backwards, looks at the music in a puzzled way, then turns the sheets around. At times, he plays a different tempo – or even a different song – with his left hand than his right hand. His famous “phonetic punctuation” routine has been a favorite since the 1940s, leaving his audience gasping with laughter. He has recreated the disaster hundreds of times of getting so passionately involved in a Tschaikovsky concerto that he slides right off the bench. His musicianship is excellent, and his serious playing in the Romantic style, has been praised.
In 1955, he was nominated for a TV Emmy for the Best Specialty Act, single or group. Borge had a Broadway career hit with “Comedy in Music.”
After a long and illustrious career of bringing music and laughter to millions, Borge died of heart failure 12/23/2000, Greenwich, CT. His death was a brief three months after that of his second wife, Sanna, who had suffered a series of strokes.
Link to Wikipedia biography