American singer and actor Daniel Kaminski, better known as Danny Kaye, was BOTD in 1913. Born in Brooklyn, New York to Ukrainian immigrant parents, he began his career in the 1930s, performing in hotels and nightclubs. After a brief stint in Hollywood, he became a Broadway star in musicals The Straw Hat Revue and Lady in the Dark, dazzling audiences with his rapid fire scat singing and physical comedy. By the 1940s, he was a top nightclub attraction and performed for US servicemen during World War Two. Returning to Hollywood as a bone fide star, he appeared in a series of comedies tailored to his musical and comic talents, including Wonder Man, On the Riviera, Knock on Wood and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. His film work includes Hans Christian Andersen (playing a queer-washed version of the Danish writer) and the holiday musical White Christmas with Bing Crosby. In the 1960s, he starred in a highly successful television series The Danny Kaye Show, and returned to Broadway in 1970 to play Noah in the musical Two By Two. In later life, he undertook extensive charity work, becoming the first roving ambassador for UNICEF. Kaye married Sylvia Fine in 1940, who managed his career and wrote many of his most famous songs, and with whom he had a daughter. They remained together until Kaye’s death in 1991, aged 78. Biographers have persistently argued that Kaye was bisexual and had a ten-year relationship with actor Laurence Olivier, rumours that were finally confirmed by Olivier’s widow Joan Plowright.