Sylvia Fine Kaye; Composer, Writer, Danny Kaye’s Widow

Sylvia Fine Kaye, a producer, teacher, writer and composer who wrote some of the funniest and most famous material performed by her husband, Danny Kaye, died Monday at age 78.

Fine, who died at her Manhattan home, had suffered from emphysema, said her publicist, Bobby Zarem.

She wrote the words and music for the songs in such Danny Kaye movies as “Up In Arms,” “Wonder Man,” “The Kid From Brooklyn,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “The Inspector General” and “The Court Jester.”

Fine also won a Peabody Award as writer, producer and host of a three-part public television series, “Musical Comedy Tonight.” She won a television Emmy in 1976 for a children’s special.

Her account of her life with Kaye, “Fine and Danny,” is awaiting publication.

Along with her husband, the Brooklyn-born Fine was an enthusiastic supporter of the arts in Los Angeles as well as in New York. For many years, the Kayes were “grand patrons” of the Los Angeles Music Center, contributing more than $1 million.

Even after his death, she continued to be a major financial supporter of the Music Center, officials said.

She was a graduate of Brooklyn College and later endowed the college’s Sylvia Fine Chair in Musical Theatre.

Four years ago, she made a $1-million gift to Hunter College to renovate its 660-seat theater as the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse.

She taught theater courses at Yale and USC.

She and Kaye were married in 1940.

Their daughter, Dena Kaye, survives.

Arrangements for a funeral and a memorial service were pending.