- Born
- Height6′ 0¾″ (1.85 m)
- Tom Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for A Gathering of Eagles (1963), Marty Back Together Again (1974) and Better Call Saul (2015).
- He entered Harvard at age 15, having skipped several grades. Everyone applying for admission to Harvard was required to include an example of their written work. Lehrer submitted a long verse, in the style of W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, which concluded: "I will leave movie thrillers/And watch caterpillars/Get born and pupated and larva'd/And I'll work like a slave/And always behave/And maybe I'll get into Harva'd." The poem in its entirety appeared in "Scholastic Magazine" in 1943. It was Lehrer's first published work.
- Has been been erroneously reported as being dead so many times that he keeps a scrapbook of articles mentioning him as "the late Tom Lehrer".
- He put all of his songs in the public domain in 2020.
- Was influenced as a boy by the witty, rapid-fire singing style of Danny Kaye. This influence is most noticeable in Lehrer's songs "The Elements" and "Lobachevsky".
- Wrote and recorded several anti-war songs, including "Send the Marines", "So Long, Mom, I'm off to Drop the Bomb" and "We'll All Go Together When We Go."
- It is a sobering thought that when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.
- I have always found it interesting... that there are people who regard copyright infringement as a form of flattery.
- Irreverence is easy - what's hard is wit.
- I've occasionally heard that I was kicked out [of Harvard] for being a Communist, for dealing drugs, for corrupting minors, or for diverse other infractions of local decorum. Unfortunately, none of these rumours are true. The one I've heard more often is that I am dead. That one I encouraged, hoping it would cut down on the junk mail. It didn't.
- The nature of forbidden words has certainly changed. For example, when I was in college, there were certain words you couldn't say in front of a girl. Now you can say them, but you can't say "girl".
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