Born in Vienna and pupil of Max Bruch in Berlin, Oscar Straus followed the advice of Johann Strauss, Jr., who told him to gain experience by conducting in provincial theatres.

In Berlin he won some fame in the Überbrettl cabaret, for which Schoenberg also wrote.

Returning to Vienna at the turn of the century, he began to write operetta in a series of works that rivalled in popularity those of Lehár.

In 1939 he moved to Paris and then to New York and Hollywood, returning after the war to Bad Ischl, where he died in 1954.