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Oscar Levant (December 27, 1906August 14, 1972) was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was as famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, as for his music. ==Life and career== Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1906, to an Orthodox Jewish family from Russia, Levant moved to New York in 1922, following the death of his father, Max. He began studying under Zygmunt Stojowski, a well-established piano pedagogue. In 1924, aged 18, he appeared with Ben Bernie in a short film, ''Ben Bernie and All the Lads'', made in New York City in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film system. In 1928, Levant traveled to Hollywood, where his career took a turn for the better. During his stay, he met and befriended George Gershwin. From 1929 to 1948 he composed the music for more than twenty movies. During this period, he also wrote or co-wrote numerous popular songs that made the Hit Parade, the most noteworthy being "Blame It on My Youth" (1934), now considered a standard. Around 1932, Levant began composing seriously. He studied under Arnold Schoenberg and impressed him sufficiently to be offered an assistantship (which he turned down, considering himself unqualified).〔Oscar Levant, ''The Unimportance of Being Oscar'', Pocket Books 1969 (reprint of G.P. Putnam 1968), p. 113. ISBN 0-671-77104-3.〕 His formal studies 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 composing a new orchestral work, a sinfonietta. He married actress Barbara Woodell; they divorced in 1932.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Palm Beach Post - Google News Archive Search )〕 In 1939, Levant married for the second time, to singer and actress June Gale (née Doris Gilmartin; June 6, 1911 – November 13, 1996), one of the Gale Sisters. Oscar and June were married for 33 years, until his death in 1972. They had three children: Marcia, Lorna, and Amanda.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Palm Beach Post - Google News Archive Search )〕 At this time, Levant was perhaps best known to American audiences as one of the regular panelists on the radio quiz show ''Information Please''. Originally scheduled as a guest panelist, Levant proved so quick-witted and popular that he became a regular fixture on the show in the late 1930s and 1940s, along with fellow panelists Franklin P. Adams and John Kieran, and moderator Clifton Fadiman. "Mr. Levant", as he was always called, was often challenged with musical questions, and he impressed audiences with his depth of knowledge and facility with a joke. Kieran praised Levant as having a "positive genius for making offhand cutting remarks that couldn't have been sharper if he'd honed them a week in his mind. Oscar was always good for a bright response edged with acid." From 1947 to 1949, Levant regularly appeared on NBC radio's ''Kraft Music Hall'', starring Al Jolson. He not only accompanied singer Jolson on the piano with classical and popular songs, but often joked and ad-libbed with Jolson and his guests. This included comedy sketches. The pairing of the two entertainers was inspired. Their individual ties to George Gershwin—Jolson introduced Gershwin's "Swanee"—undoubtedly had much to do with their rapport. Both Levant and Jolson appeared as themselves in the Gershwin biopic ''Rhapsody in Blue'' (1945). He also acted in ''The Barkleys of Broadway'' (1949) and ''An American in Paris'' (1951). In the early 1950s, Levant was an occasional panelist on the NBC game show ''Who Said That?'', in which celebrities would try to determine the speaker of quotations taken from recent news reports.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Show Overview: ''Who Said That?'' )〕 Between 1958 and 1960, Levant hosted a television talk show on KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, ''The Oscar Levant Show'', which later became syndicated. It featured his piano playing along with monologues and interviews with top-name guests such as Fred Astaire and Linus Pauling. A full recording of only two shows is known to exist,〔() 〕 one with Astaire, who paid to have a kinescope recording of the broadcast made so that he could assess his performance. The 1920s and 1930s wit Alexander Woollcott, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, once said of him: "There isn't anything the matter with Levant that a few miracles wouldn't cure."〔Teichman, Howard, ''Smark Aleck, the Wit World and Life of Alexander Woollcott'' (William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1976), p. 170〕 Open about his neuroses and hypochondria, in later life Levant became addicted to prescription drugs and was frequently committed to mental hospitals by his wife. Despite his afflictions, Levant was considered a genius by some, in many areas. (He himself wisecracked "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.") 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Oscar Levant」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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