Composer Marvin Hamlisch dead at 68
Marvin Hamlisch (the award-winning composer of “A Chorus Line” and “The Way We Were”) has died suddenly at the age of 68, prompting warm tributes from Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan and dozens of stage and screen stars.
Hamlisch (the musical force behind “The Sting” and numerous other movies and Broadway shows) died in Los Angeles on Monday – a family spokesman said. He collapsed following what was called “a brief illness”. Details were not made public.
Streisand, a friend of 45 years and star of romantic movie “The Way We Were”, said she was “devastated” at his death and recalled how he had played at her 1998 wedding.
“When I think of him now, it was his brilliantly quick mind, his generosity and delicious sense of humor that made him a delight to be around … He was a true musical genius but above all that, he was a beautiful human being. I will truly miss him” – she added in a statement.
Marvin Hamlisch.
Marvin Hamlisch (the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer who imbued his movie and Broadway scores with pizazz and panache and often found his songs in the upper reaches of the pop charts) died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 68 and lived in New York.
He collapsed on Monday after a brief illness – a family friend said.
For a few years starting in 1973, Mr. Hamlisch spent practically as much time accepting awards for his compositions as he did writing them. He is one of a handful of artists to win every major creative prize, some of them numerous times, including an Oscar for “The Way We Were” (1973, shared with the lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman), a Grammy as best new artist (1974), and a Tony and a Pulitzer for “A Chorus Line” (1975, shared with the lyricist Edward Kleban, the director Michael Bennett and the book writers James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante).
All told, he won three Oscars, four Emmys and four Grammys. His omnipresence on awards and talk shows made him one of the last in a line of celebrity composers that included Henry Mancini, Burt Bacharach and Stephen Sondheim. Mr. Hamlisch, bespectacled and somewhat gawky, could often appear to be the stereotypical music school nerd (in fact, at 7 he was the youngest student to be accepted to the Juilliard School at the time), but his appearance belied his intelligence and ability to banter easily with the likes of Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin. His melodies were sure-footed and sometimes swashbuckling. “One,” from “A Chorus Line,” with its punchy, brassy lines, distills the essence of the Broadway showstopper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NrNmUNwFp8
Hamlisch, who would sometimes remark that his last name began with “ham” for a reason, charmed audiences with his ad-libs and improvisational agility. He routinely included in his concerts a short segment he called “Rent-a-Composer,” in which he composed and performed songs based on the audience’s usually outlandish suggestions.
“The world will remember Marvin for his brilliant musical accomplishments, from ‘A Chorus Line’ to ‘The Way We Were,’ and so many others, but when I think of him now, it was his brilliantly quick mind, his generosity, and delicious sense of humor that made him a delight to be around” – Barbra Streisand, who recorded her first million-selling single with “The Way We Were,” said in a statement Tuesday. “He was a true musical genius.”
Although he could easily have rested on his laurels, Hamlisch continued to write for movies, most recently for Steven Soderbergh’s quirky 2009 comedy “The Informant!”
He was working on another Soderbergh project (a film about Liberace, starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon) and was planning to travel to Nashville this week to see “The Nutty Professor,” a stage musical he scored for director Jerry Lewis, who wrote and starred in the 1963 sci-fi comedy that inspired the current show. Hamlisch, who lived in New York, also had Broadway hopes for another musical he was working on called “Gotta Dance.”
“He didn’t want to waste a moment” – said Michael Feinstein, the pianist-singer who is known for his devotion to the American songbook and who was slated to perform with Hamlisch and the New York Philharmonic onNew Year’s Eve. “He had a passion for living, and he loved what he did…. His intelligence and sensitivity gave him the tools to musicalize life experiences in a very authentic way.”