Danny Kaye

Danny Kaye is interred in the Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. Although for a time he was cast in leading roles, he became very successful as secondary and minor characters, making a good living in the film industry for more than three decades. He received two Academy awards, an honorary award in 1955 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1982. During his long career, Wilfred Lucas appeared in more than 375 films. He also starred in "The Paladin of the Lost Hour", an episode of the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone. While working in Hollywood, in 1926 he returned to the stage, performing in several Broadway plays. Kaye made his film debut in a very rare short comedy called Money On Your Life.. Wilfred Lucas was one of the fortunate ones whose skills and voice allowed him to make the successful transition from silent film to sound.

Kaye starred in two biopics, Hans Christian Andersen about the Danish story-teller, and The Five Pennies (1959), about jazz pioneer Red Nichols. The divorce was a bitter one and through what is now known as Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), Wilfred Lucas became estranged from his son. Joan Plowright, widow of the actor Laurence Olivier, claimed that Olivier had a long homosexual relationship with Kaye while Olivier was still married to his second wife, Vivien Leigh. John Meredyth Lucas (1919-2002) became a successful writer and director including a number of episodes of the famous Mannix and Star Trek television shows. Starred in several movies with actress Virginia Mayo in the 1940's. While working at Biograph Studios, Wilfred Lucas met and ultimately married actress/screenwriter Bess Meredyth (1890-1969) with whom he had a son. Before he died in 1987 he also showed he could conduct an orchestra during a comical, but technically sound series of concerts organised for Unicef fundraising. Canadian born director Mack Sennett hired him to both direct and act in a large number of films at his Keystone Studios.

He showed quite a different and serious side as Ambassador for UNICEF, and in one of his few dramatic roles in the memorable TV-movie Skokie, in which he played a Holocaust survivor. Part of the group of Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, Lucas became friends and sometimes starred with Mary Pickford, Sam De Grasse, and Marie Dressler. In many of his movies as well as on stage he proved to be an able actor, singer, dancer and comedian, often having his comedic talents showcased by special material written by his wife, Sylvia Fine Kaye. In 1916, Lucas appeared in Griffith’s film, Intolerance, a monumental project regarded by many as the most spectacular film of all time. He starred in many films such as Hans Christian Andersen (1942), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), White Christmas (1954), Knock on Wood (1954), and The Court Jester (1956). Lucas also began directing in 1912, first with Griffith on An Outcast Among Outcasts, and during the ensuing twenty years directed another 44 films. In 1941 he appeared in the Broadway show, "Lady in the Dark" and performed the famous number "Tchaikovsky," in which he sung the names of a whole string of Russian composers at breakneck speed seemingly without taking a breath. He appeared in more than fifty of these short films (usually 17 minutes) over the next two years and in 1910, while still acting, he wrote the script for Griffith's film Sunshine Sue which was followed by many more scripts between then and 1924.

Born in Brooklyn as red-haired David Daniel Kaminski, Kaye became one of the world's best-known comedians. In 1908, Wilfred Lucas made his motion picture debut in Griffith's production, The Greaser's Gauntlet. Danny Kaye (January 18, 1911–March 3, 1987) was an American actor and comedian. In it, she referred to Wilfred Lucas as the "first real grand actor, democratic enough to work in Biograph movies.". In her 1925 book titled When the Movies Were Young, Griffith's wife, actress Linda Arvidson, told the story of the early days at Biograph Studios. At the time, the film business was still looked down upon by many members of the theatrical community who refused to "lower" themselves and work in film or to help an industry that was seen as a competitive threat.

Griffith. W. Following his 1906 role in the highly successful play, The Chorus Lady, Lucas was recruited to the fledgling Biograph Studios by the still struggling D. A handsome and sophisticated young man, Wilfred Lucas headed to New York City to work in the theater, making his Broadway acting debut in 1904 at the Savoy Theater in the production of The Superstition of Sue.

Wilfred Lucas, born January 30, 1871 in the Province of Ontario, Canada - died December 5, 1940 in Los Angeles, California, United States, was a stage and film actor, a film director, and a screenwriter.