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.
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." Examples include "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin," "I think a lot of Bernstein — but not as much as he does," and (after Marilyn converted to Judaism when she married playwright Arthur Miller), "Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her."
From the 1930s through the mid-1950s, Levant appeared in a number of feature films, often playing a pianist or composer. He had major supporting roles in the movie musicals The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, An American in Paris (1951), starring Gene Kelly, and The Band Wagon (1953), starring Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.
Levant was briefly married to actress Barbara Woodell; they divorced in 1932. In 1939, Levant married for the second time, to singer and actress June Gale (née Doris Gilmartin), one of the Gale Sisters. They were married for 33 years until his death in 1972, and had three children: Marcia, Lorna, and Amanda.
Ben Bernie and All the Lads (1924), filmed in early DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.
Romance on the High Seas (1948), Doris Day's first picture.
An American in Paris (1951), wherein he played a bohemian pianist.
The Band Wagon (1953), where his songwriter character was based on the movie's own co-screenwriter — songwriter Adolph Green.
↑ Oscar Levant, The Unimportance of Being Oscar, Pocket Books 1969 (reprint of G.P. Putnam 1968), p. 113. ISBN 0-671-77104-3.
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↑ Ethan Thompson (2011). "5". Parody and Taste in Postwar American Television Culture. New York: Routledge. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
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↑ Colapinto, John (2012-04-03). "A Star is Born, Lost, and Found". The New Yorker. New York City. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
↑ "Oscar Levant". Answers.com. Retrieved November 13, 2014.