Oscar was probably best known as the piano playing wise ass sidekick of Gene Kelly in An American In Paris, but he was much more.
He was a brilliant pianist, a marvelous wit and a horrific hypochondriac.
Harpo Marx tells the story about how, at a party, a famous trio (or maybe quartet) was supposed to play, but their pianist was ill. Oscar offered to sit in. They had been together for years and thought his offer was nuts. He talked them into it, and proved to be better at sight reading their repertoire than their regular pianist could play after rehearsing with them.
And if for no other reason one should love Oscar for a couple of comments that he made.
"I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin." and After she had converted to Judaism when she married, he said "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her" and finally "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."
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He was a brilliant pianist, a marvelous wit and a horrific hypochondriac.
Harpo Marx tells the story about how, at a party, a famous trio (or maybe quartet) was supposed to play, but their pianist was ill. Oscar offered to sit in. They had been together for years and thought his offer was nuts. He talked them into it, and proved to be better at sight reading their repertoire than their regular pianist could play after rehearsing with them.
And if for no other reason one should love Oscar for a couple of comments that he made.
"I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin."
and
After she had converted to Judaism when she married, he said "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her"
and finally
"There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."