Liberace

Wladziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 - February 4, 1987), better known by the stage name Liberace, was an American entertainer.

Liberace was born in West Allis, Wisconsin in a musical family.

He was a classically trained pianist with wide experience playing popular music as a young man. As his classical career developed, he found that his whimsical encores, playing pop songs and marches, were going over better than his renditions of the classical repetoire, so he changed his act from classics with a bit of pop, to pop with a bit of classics. The great pianist, Paderewski[?], a family friend, advised him to follow his own example and bill himself under his last name only.

He had a network television program in the 1950s. His brother George lead the band backing up Liberace on the program.

Later in life he performed regularly in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He was known for his extravagant costumes, his highly-coloured style of piano-playing, and his personal charm and self-deprecating wit.

He famously sued the Daily Mirror for alleging that he was a homosexual, and was awarded damages for libel. Years later, Liberace died of AIDS.