Victor Borge, clown prince of classical music, dead at 91

<br>GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) _ Victor Borge, the daffy pianist whose whimsical approach to the classics earned him the moniker the ``clown prince'' of Denmark, died Saturday. He was 91. <br><br>Borge

Saturday, December 23rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) _ Victor Borge, the daffy pianist whose whimsical approach to the classics earned him the moniker the ``clown prince'' of Denmark, died Saturday. He was 91.

Borge died at home in sleep, his longtime manager, Bernard Gurtman, said.

Borge had just returned from Copenhagen, the city of his birth, and was excited about spending Christmas with his family, Gurtman said. Borge would have turned 92 on Jan. 3.

For decades, Borge delighted audiences by deflating the pomposity of classical music. He fell off his bench, played music upside down and in weird ways, and repeatedly milked laughs from such classic routines as ``phonetic punctuation'' in which he used goofy sounds to indicate commas, periods and question marks in his monologue.

He kept up a busy career into his 80s, touring and issuing videos, including his most popular, ``The Best of Victor Borge,'' which sold some 3 million copies.

``Some people reach the point where they must try desperately to hold on to something that isn't there anymore, no matter how great they are,'' he said in an interview in 1986. ``This is where I am very, very lucky. We all do what we can, we all have limitations. Apparently, within my limitations, there is enough to go on and on and on and on.''