Cole Porter Birthday & Fun Facts

Cole Porter Birthday Highlights

Birth Name

Cole Albert Porter

Place Of Birth

Indiana, USA

Age

132 years old

Birth Date

June 8 1891

Cole Porter Facts

Child Star?

no

Occupation

Songwriter

Education & Qualifications

Yale University

Net Worth

$1,100,000

Current Partner

Linda Lee Thomas

Parents

Samuel Fenwick Porter, Kate

Cole Porter was a popular songwriter.
This prominent American singer and composer were born in the United States. Many of his songs became standards, with humorous, urbane lyrics, and many of his compositions were successful on Broadway and in films.
Porter, who was born into an affluent family in Indiana, rejected his grandfather's wishes to go to law school and pursue music as a career. Musical theater drew him in despite his classical training. After a poor start, he began to find success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s, he had established himself as one of the most important songwriters for Broadway musicals.
Keep scrolling down to learn some interesting personal facts about Cole Porter, like net worth, age, height, weight, etc.

What was Cole Porter's net worth?

Cole Porter, the songwriter's net worth, is estimated to be about $11 million.

How much did Cole Porter earn per year?

Details about Cole Porter's yearly income are unavailable.

How tall was Cole Porter?

Cole Porter was 5 ft 6 in (170.6 cm) tall.

How old was Cole Porter?

Cole Porter lived for 73 years before taking his last breath on October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica, California.

Cole Porter was born on June 9, 1891. His parents lost their two children before his birth. Porter was raised by his mother, who instilled in him a love of music at a young age. He began learning the violin at the age of six, the piano at the age of eight, and his first opera at the age of ten. To make him look more bright, she changed his birth year from 1891 to 1893. Porter's father was a gifted singer and pianist as well.
This young man went to Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. He was named valedictorian of his class. Porter graduated in English, took a course in music, and studied French at Yale University. He was a member of Scroll & Key as well as Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternities, along with contributing to the Yale Record, a school humor publication. He was a founder of the Whiffenpoofs, a capella vocal group, and he was voted president of said Yale Glee Club and served as its primary soloist.

Who was Cole Porter's partner?

Cole Porter married Linda Lee Thomas, a wealthy divorcée from Louisville, Kentucky, eight years his senior, in 1919. Cole Porter had no children.

Best Known For…

Cole Porter penned 300 songs while still at Yale, notably, student songs like 'Bulldog' & 'Bingo Eli Yale' ('Bingo, That's The Lingo!'), which are still performed on campus. He also composed musical comedy numbers for his social group, the Yale Dramatic Association, and also as a Harvard student – 'Cora' in 1911, 'And the Villain Still Pursued Her' in 1912), 'The Pot of Gold' in 1912, 'The Kaleidoscope' in 1913, and 'Paranoia' in 1914 – which helped him prepare for a profession as a Broadway and Hollywood songwriter and lyricist.
Porter's first Broadway song, 'Esmeralda', debuted in the musical Hands Up in 1915. 'See America First', a patriotic comic opera fashioned after Gilbert and Sullivan and with a script by T. Lawrason Riggs, was a fiasco on Broadway in 1916, terminating after two weeks. Porter ended up spending the next year in New York City until enlisting in the army to fight in World War I.
Cole Porter came to Paris to serve with Duryea Relief Association in 1917, once the United States joined World War I. Some writers have questioned Porter's claim to have been in the French Foreign Legion, but the Legion identifies Porter among its soldiers and has a painting of him on exhibit in their Aubagne museum. According to some versions, he served in North Africa, where he taught gunnery to American troops. "He had a specially modified transportable piano built for him so that he might carry it on his back to play for the troops in their bivouacs," according to a bereavement notice in The New York Times.
Porter joined the Schola Cantorum in Paris, wherein Vincent d'Indy taught him orchestral & harmony. The number 'Old-Fashioned Garden' from the musical 'Hitchy-Koo' in 1919 became Porter's first huge hit. He wrote the music for many numbers in the theatrical A Night Out in 1920. In 1921, he scored two triumphs with the comic numbers 'The Blue Boy Blues' and 'Olga, Come Back to the Volga' for a C. B. Cochran performance. In 1923, he collaborated with Gerald Murphy on a brief ballet called 'Landed', which was later renamed 'Within the Quota'. Charles Koechlin arranged it, and it premiered on the same evening with Milhaud's La création du monde.
Cole Porter returned to Broadway in 1928 with his first triumph, the melodic 'Paris'. 'Let's Misbehave' and 'Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love', which were launched by Bordoni & Arthur Margetson, were among the classic songs for the performance. Porter was included in the top ranks of Broadway songwriters at long last. With Porter's music and a big international ensemble fronted by Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale, and Tilly Losch, C.B. Cochran envisioned a West End extravaganza reminiscent of Ziegfeld's productions. 'Wake Up, and Dream' was a 263-performance revue in London. After that, in 1929, Cochran moved it to New York, where his composition 'What Is This Thing Called Love?' became a massive success.
'Fifty Million Frenchmen' (1929) had been Porter's final Broadway production of the 1920s, for which he penned 28 songs, featuring 'You Do Something to Me', 'You've Got That Thing', and 'The Tale of the Oyster'. The show was met with mixed reviews. Irving Berlin, who respected and supported Porter, paid for a newspaper advertisement proclaiming the production to be the best musical comedy ever produced. This salvaged the musical, which had a good run of 254 performances.
Ray Goetz, who produced 'Paris' as well as 'Fifty Million Frenchmen', approached Porter and asked him to compose a musical about another city in New York he truly loved. 'The New Yorkers' (1930) became famous almost immediately for including 'Love for Sale', a song about a streetwalker. Although the phrase was deemed too graphic on the radio at the time, it was transcribed and broadcasted as an instrumental, and it quickly became a classic. Porter refers to it as one of his favorite songs on numerous occasions. 'I Happen to Like New York', a song for the New Yorkers, was also featured.
Then came Fred Astaire's final stage production, 'Gay Divorce' (1932). Porter backed this up with 'Nymph Errant', a West End production for Gertrude Lawrence (1933). 'Anything Goes', which premiered in 1934, was an instant hit. Many believe Porter's score from this period to be his best. Mr. Porter is in a class by himself, according to the New Yorker magazine review, and Porter later referred to that as one of his two ideal shows, alongside 'Kiss Me, Kate'. His film scores include 'You'd Be So Easy to Love' and 'I've Got You Under My Skin' for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pictures Born to Dance (1936), with James Stewart, and 'Rosalie' (1937), with 'In the Still of the Night', among others.
Porter continued to compose for movies in between Broadway shows. He frequented Hollywood, New York, and Williamstown, Massachusetts, as political upheaval in Europe grew. Porter's career was brought to a halt with the fiasco of Vincente Minnelli's picture 'The Pirate' (1948). Porter made a notable revival in 1948 with 'Kiss Me, Kate' after a period of obscurity. 'Silk Stockings' (1955), which featured 'All of You', was Porter's last independent Broadway play, and it ran for 477 performances. His final musical was 'Aladdin', a CBS television special (1958).
Porter died on October 15, 1964, near Santa Monica, California, at the age of 73, from kidney failure. He is laid alongside his wife and father in Mount Hope Cemetery, Peru, Indiana.
Only two owners have continued Porter's legacy since then, with Williams College inheriting the land, including the possessions of the house, a collection of books, records, and musical scores.
Shortly after Porter died in 1965, Judy Garland sang a medley of Porter's compositions at the 37th Academy Awards. A slew of legendary vocalists has recorded Porter's songs, and others have published whole albums of his work. Ella Fitzgerald launched 'Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook' in 1956. 'Ella Loves Cole' was her second collection, released in 1972, with many more to follow. Dionne Sings Cole Porter was published by Dionne Warwick in 1990. Same year to commemorate Porter's 100th birthday, a video featuring performers performing his compositions was published.

Charity Work

Cole Porter, the popular songwriter, continues to raise funds even after his death through his work. Red Hot + Blue, a charitable CD for AIDS research published in 1990, contained 20 Cole Porter songs covered by musicians such as U2 and Annie Lennox. The famous piano of Cole Porter raises donations for charity at the Waldorf Astoria.

What awards did Cole Porter win?

'Kiss Me, Kate' won Cole Porter the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1948. Porter earned an Academy Award nomination for 'True Love', a song he wrote for High Society in 1956.
Cole Porter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in May 2007. His image was included in the Hoosier Heritage Gallery in the Governor's Office of Indiana in December 2010. In the years since Porter's death, many symphony orchestras and legendary vocalists worldwide have paid tribute to him. Porter was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and the Great American Songbook Hall of Fame.

Cole Porter's Hobbies And Interests

Cole Porter had a special interest in horses. Sadly this interest brought upon him the trauma of his life when he met with an accident that led to the amputation of his leg.

• Cole Porter hit songs were warmly welcomed by both French and American audiences and reviewers.
• With 1,077 concerts in New York and 400 in London, 'Kiss Me, Kate' was by far his most successful show.
• Every year in June, the Cole Porter celebration is organized in his native of Peru, Indiana, to promote art and music appreciation.
• Porter was honored with a plaque on Chicago's Legacy Walk in 2014, which honors LGBT achievers.

We would love your help! If you have a photo of Cole Porter, either of them alone or a selfie that you would be happy to share, please send it to [email protected].
If you have knowledge or information that you think would help us improve this article, please contact us.