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Marvin Hamlisch
His Life
Composer, songwriter, pianist, conductor, and raconteur Marvin Frederick Hamlisch was born in New York City on June 2, 1944. His parents, Lilly (née Schacter) and Max Hamlisch, an accordionist and bandleader, escaped from Vienna in the lead-up to World War II. Hamlisch's musical talents became evident by the time he was five when he began to play songs on the piano that he learned by ear from listening to the radio. At the age of six, Hamlisch was accepted into what is now the Juilliard School Pre-College Division - the youngest student to that date.
Hamlisch secured a job as an assistant to Buster Davis, vocal arranger for the original Broadway production of Funny Girl (1964), where his duties included working with Barbra Streisand as a rehearsal pianist for the show - establishing a close working relationship that would continue until his death. His first song hit, "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows," was written when he was twenty-one. The recording by Lesley Gore shot to number four on the charts and was quickly followed by her hit recording of "California Nights." Meanwhile, Hamlisch continued as Buster Davis's assistant on NBC's The Bell Telephone Hour while simultaneously attending Queens College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967.
After playing the piano at a party for the film producer Sam Spiegel, Hamlisch auditioned for him as a composer, and was hired to score his first film, The Swimmer (1968). This was quickly followed with scores for two Woody Allen films - Take the Money and Run and Bananas - establishing an unanticipated career as a film composer, which would ultimately have him composing and arranging over 45 scores for films and television movies throughout his career.
There was a brief detour where Hamlisch toured with Groucho Marx as his accompanist (and straight man), culminating in a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1972. It was the next year that Hamlisch's career took off, making him a household name. He composed the score and title song for The Way We Were and adapted Scott Joplin rags for the film The Sting (and was also the pianist for the recording). In 1974 he was awarded an unprecedented three music-related Oscars, for original score, title song, and adapted score. Accepting the third award he famously blurted out: "I think we can now talk as friends..." This, followed by innumerable appearances as a guest on television shows - where he revealed self-deprecating charm, a talent for composing songs on command, and an easy humor-made Hamlisch an in-demand celebrity.
In 1975, Hamlisch finally accomplished his long-dreamed-of goal to compose the score for a Broadway musical. That show, A Chorus Line, went on to become the longest running Broadway musical to date, with 6,137 performances, and garnered Hamlisch a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize. He followed that up in 1979 with the score for the musical They're Playing Our Song, written by Neil Simon, and based on the relationship between Hamlisch and his collaborating lyricist at the time, Carol Bayer Sager. That show ran for 1,082 performances, with Hamlisch having two shows running on Broadway simultaneously.
Scores for films and musicals continued, including the score for the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), with its seductive theme song, "Nobody Does it Better." Three more Broadway musicals followed, Smile (1986), The Goodbye Girl (1993), and Sweet Smell of Success (2002).
In 1988, Hamlisch began a long-distance relationship (via telephone) with Terre Blair, a broadcast journalist. They finally met in person the following year, and they married on March 6, 1989.
Meanwhile, Hamlisch had begun yet another career, as a conductor for both concert tours with singers, particularly Barbra Streisand, and of Pops orchestras, becoming principal pops conductor for several of them, including the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. In 1991 he composed the concert work: "The Anatomy of Peace," Suite in One Movement for Full Orchestra and Chorus, which was premiered by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. His last film score was for The Informant! (2009). On August 6, 2012, at the age of 68, Hamlisch died unexpectedly in Los Angeles. At the time of his death he had just completed adapting the music for the HBO film Behind the Candelabra (which aired in 2013), and a new musical aiming for Broadway, The Nutty Professor, which premiered in Nashville. |