Sylvia Fine

Sylvia Fine
Sylvia Fine with husband Danny Kaye, 1945.
Background information
Birth name	Sylvia Fine
Born	(1913-08-29)29 August 1913 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	28 October 1991(1991-10-28) (aged 78) Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Composer television producer
Years active	1940-1975

Sylvia Fine (29 August 1913 – 28 October 1991) was an American lyricist, composer, and producer, and the wife of the comedian Danny Kaye. She and her future husband grew up within blocks of each other in Brooklyn, but did not meet until 1939.

Sylvia Fine was born in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of three children of a Jewish dentist, and raised in East New York. She attended Thomas Jefferson High School and studied music at Brooklyn College, where she wrote the music for the school's alma mater, with lyrics from the poet Robert Friend.

She was working as an audition pianist when she met Danny Kaye; both were working on a short-lived Broadway show. Fine also wrote the lyrics and music for it. Though the pair had never met before, they discovered something in common. Kaye had once worked for Fine's father, watching his office while the dentist went to lunch. Dr. Fine also had to fire his future son-in-law for doing woodworking with his dental drills. After a whirlwind romance, they were married on 3 January 1940. Kaye proposed on the telephone while working in Florida; Fine was in New York. She made the trip to Fort Lauderdale where they were married.

She took a direct role in managing her husband's career and wrote many of his songs for him, both in film and recordings. Those for the film The Court Jester were co-written with Sammy Cahn. Fine was also an associate producer of some of the films. Fine received a Peabody Award in 1980, and during her career she was also nominated for two Oscars and two Emmys. She began working in television production with her husband's 1960s television shows.

The New York Times reported, "In the 1970s, [Fine] embarked on a separate career as a television producer and teacher. She began teaching musical comedy at the University of Southern California in 1971 and at Yale in 1975. In 1979, she produced and narrated the course as a 90-minute PBS program, "Musical Comedy Tonight," (eventually a three part series), which won a Peabody Award. In 1975 she was executive producer for a television special, "Danny Kaye: Look In at the Met." She also produced and edited "Assignment Children," a UNICEF film that starred her husband."