Actor, comedian, musician. Born Børge Rosenbaum, on January 3, 1909, in Copenhagen, Denmark to Bernhard and Frederikke Rosenbaum. Borge began playing the piano when he was three. He studied on scholarship at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in Copenhagen and made his orchestral debut at the age of 10 with the Copenhagen Philharmonic. He began to combine humor with his musical talent when he played in clubs and with friends, and gradually he established himself as a serious musician with a talent for amusing the audience. While in his early twenties, he pursued a career in theater and film and he became a successful entertainer throughout Scandinavia. With the advent of World War II, however, Borge was forced to flee Europe after the invasion of Germany in 1940. He arrived in the United States on the SS American Legion, the last American passenger ship out of Europe before the outbreak of the war. Knowing very little English, Borge nonetheless began performing again within his first year in the United States, on a radio program called the Kraft Music Hall, featuring Bing Crosby. He made his American cinematic debut in 1944, with a bit part in Cecil B. DeMille's The Story of Dr. Wassell. That same year, he starred in Tim Whelan's Higher and Higher, also featuring Frank Sinatra and Mel Tormé. In 1951, he hosted The Victor Borge Show, a comedy entertainment program in which he played the piano and performed comedy routines with guests. Borge became as famous for finding excuses not to play the piano as for when he actually did play. His routine would begin with an excessive amount of finger stretching and flapping the tails of his tuxedo before sitting, followed by numerous antics that included falling off his seat, swatting at imaginary flies, and even stopping to scold late-arriving audience members. Beginning in 1953, Borge performed a one-man show on Broadway, Comedy in Music, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 1956. After 849 performances, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the star of the longest-running one-man show in the history of theater. Following this recognition, he began touring worldwide as the conductor of leading orchestras—including the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Royal Copenhagen Orchestra. He did not return to film for nearly a decade, and then only sporadically. In 1966, he lent his heavily accented and mellifluous voice to the animated children's film The Daydreamer, a film directed by Jules Bass and based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen. In 1968, he hosted The Hollywood Palace, a television variety show with Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows. His next film role was not until 1983, when he appeared as himself in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy, starring Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis. He is the cofounder of the Thanks to Scandinavia Foundation, a multi-million dollar fund established in 1963 in commemoration of Scandinavians who risked their lives protecting others during the Holocaust. Five Nordic countries have knighted Borge, and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994. In 1999, during the 22nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors, President Clinton presented him with an award for his lifetime contribution to arts and culture. Throughout his legendary career, Borge has earned the nickname, “The Great Dane,” and the Washington Post once praised him as “funniest pianist on Earth.” On December 23, 2000, Borge died in his sleep at his home in Connecticut, having just returned from Copenhagen.