|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other authors named Oscar:
|
|
|
|
Author's popularity: 0
Vote:  
|
If you like or dislike this author in general or one or more of their quotes in particular, please give us your feedback by clicking on the icon to vote for, or the icon to vote against them.
|
|
Popularity: 0
Vote: | An epigram is only a wisecrack that's played at Carnegie Hall. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I am no more humble than my talents require. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I don't drink. I don't like it. It makes me feel good. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I have no trouble with y enemies. But my god damn friends... they are the ones that keep me walking the floors at night. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I'm a study of a man in chaos in search of frenzy. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I've given up reading books. I find it takes my mind off myself. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Once Dwight Eisenhower makes up his mind, he's full of indecision. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Once I make up my mind, I'm full of indecision. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | So little time and so little to do. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you will find the real tinsel underneath. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | There are two sides to every question: my side and the wrong side. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left. |
|
Biography
|
Oscar Levant (Pittsburgh, December 27, 1906 – August 14, 1972) was a pianist and an actor, better known for his character than his music.
Born into a musical family, Levant moved to New York with his mother in 1922 after the death of his father. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski, a well established piano pedagogue.
In 1928 Levant traveled to Hollywood where his career turned for the better. During his stay, he met and befriended George Gershwin.
Around 1932 Levant began composing on a serious note. This led to a request by Aaron Copland to play at the Yaddo Festival of contemporary American music on April 30 of that year. Successful, Levant began on a new orchestral work, Sinfonietta.
During the years of 1958 and 1960, Levant had a syndicated talk show, The Oscar Levant Show. The show was highly controversial, finally being taken from the air after a comment in regards to Marilyn Monroe: "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her." He later refuted he "hadn't meant it that way." Several months later, the show was rebroadcast in a slightly revised format. The show was now taped to use as a buffer to Oscar's antics. This however, failed to prevent Levant from making some comments of Mae West's sex life, causing the show to be canceled for good.
Levant was also known for his frequent guest appearances on Jack Paar's talk show.
Levant was hopelessly addicted to drugs and was frequently committed to mental hospitals by his wife, June Gale. Despite his addiction, Levant was a genius in many areas. His playing of the Tchaikovsky and Anton Rubinstein piano concerti, not to mention Gershwin, is a testimony to that.
Oscar Levant drew increasingly away from "starlight" in his later years. On his passing in 1972 he was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
Filmography * Humoresque (1945)
* Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
* The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
* An American in Paris (1951) where he played Bohemian pianist.
* O. Henry's Full House (1952)
* The Band Wagon (1953) where he played a Broadway songwriter
* Memoirs of an Amnesiac (1965)
...(more on Wikipedia)
|
|
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Oscar Levant".
|
|
|