Biography
This page uses content from the Marvin Hamlisch biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Marvin Hamlisch (born June 2, 1944) is a successful American composer of film scores.
Biography
Hamlisch was born in New York City to Viennese Jewish parents. His was a musical family with his father being an accordionist and bandleader. Marvin Hamlisch was something of a child prodigy and by age five he began mimicking music he heard on the radio on the piano. A few months before he turned seven, in 1951, he became the youngest person ever accepted to the Juilliard School. However anxiety issues kept him from pursuing a career as a concert pianist leading him to instead focus on composition, specifically for film and theater.
Although Liza Minnelli's debut album included a song he did in his teens, his first hit did not come until he was 21 years old. This song was done by Lesley Gore, in the form of Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows. (The song, in Lesley Gore's version, later figured prominently in the "Marge on the Lam" episode of The Simpsons) His first film score was for The Swimmer although he had done some music for films as early as 1965. Later he did music for some of Woody Allen's early films like Take the Money and Run.
The 1970s would be his peak period as a composer. This is most true of the first half of the decade. The best known work he did in this period might be adaptations of Scott Joplin's ragtime music for the motion picture The Sting, including its theme song, "The Entertainer". In award terms he had his greatest success with The Way We Were in 1974. For that he won two of his three 1974 Academy Awards. He also won 4 Grammy Awards in 1974, two of them for "The Way We Were." He continued having hits in the late 1970s after this. He co-wrote "Nobody Does It Better" from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me with his then-girlfriend Carole Bayer Sager. He also wrote the orchestral/disco score for the film, which was rerecorded for album. The song went on to be nominated for an Oscar in 1977. He also had Broadway success with A Chorus Line and a score for a Neil Simon play.
Although productive the 1980s were a less successful period for him. On balance the decade was arguably his least successful period. At the very beginning of the decade his relationship with Carole Bayer Sager ended, but as musical collaborators they later continued to do some work together. In 1983 the musical Jean failed in the United Kingdom and never appeared in the US. In 1986 Smile was a mixed success, but did gain some note for the song Disneyland. He won no awards in music, theater, or film during the 1980s. Still this should not be exaggerated. In the 1980s he had success with the scores for Ordinary People (1980) and Sophie's Choice (1982). He also received an Academy Award nomination in 1986 for a song in the film version of A Chorus Line. He married his current wife in 1989. The 1980s had just been unsuccessful for him in comparison to the previous decade.
The 1990s saw something of an improvement if not a return to the fame he once had in the 1970s. He received his first Emmy nomination for his musical work for the television show Brooklyn Bridge. Later he won his first Emmy for a Barbra Streisand special. He also received a Tony nomination for music in a revival of The Goodbye Girl.
Currently, he is Principal Pops Conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra the National Symphony Orchestra (the first person to hold this position)and the San Diego Symphony.
He is one of only a few people to win all four major US performing awards, Emmy Award, Grammy Award, the Oscar and Tony Award.
He will be inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (www.limusichalloffame.org) in 2007
Broadway
- Imaginary Friends (2002)
- Sweet Smell of Success (2002)
- The Goodbye Girl (1993)
- Smile (1986)
- Jean (1983)
- They're Playing Our Song (1978)
- A Chorus Line (Pulitzer Prize) (1975)
- Seesaw (1973)
Film
Films scored
- The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
- Open Season (1996)
- Seasons of the Heart (1994)
- Frankie and Johnny (1991)
- Missing Pieces (1991)
- Switched at Birth (1991)
- Women and Men: Stories of Seduction (1990)
- The Experts (1989)
- Shirley Valentine (1989)
- The January Man (1989)
- David (1988)
- Little Nikita (1988)
- Sam Found Out: A Triple Play (1988)
- The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman (1987)
- Three Men and a Baby (1987)
- The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987)
- When the Time Comes (1987)
- A Chorus Line (1985)
- DARYL (1985)
- A Streetcar Named Desire (1984)
- Romantic Comedy (1983)
- I Ought To Be In Pictures (1982)
- Sophie's Choice (1982)
- Gilda Live (1980)
- Ordinary People (1980)
- Seems Like Old Times (1980)
- Chapter Two (1979)
- Starting Over (1979)
- Ice Castles (1978)
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1978)
- Same Time, Next Year (1978)
- The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977)
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
- The Entertainer (1976) -- what is this doing here? Isn't this a song not a film?
- Funny Lady (1975)
- The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975)
- The Sting (1974)
- The Way We Were (1974)
- Save the Tiger (1973)
- The World's Greatest Athlete (1973)
- Fat City (1972)
- The War Between Men and Women (1972)
- Bananas (1971)
- Kotch (1971)
- Something Big (1971)
- Flap (1970)
- Move (1970)
- The April Fools (1969)
- Take the Money and Run (1969)
- Ski Patrol (1968)
- The Swimmer (1968)
Academy Awards
- 1997 Nominee, Best Original Song - "I've Finally Found Someone" from The Mirror Has Two Faces
- 1990 Nominee, Best Original Song - "The Girl Who Used To Be Me" from Shirley Valentine
- 1986 Nominee, Best Original Song - "Surprise Surprise" from A Chorus Line
- 1983 Nominee, Best Original Score - Sophie's Choice
- 1980 Nominee, Best Original Song - "Through The Eyes of Love" from Ice Castles
- 1979 Nominee, Best Original Song - "The Last Time I Felt Like This" from Same Time Next Year
- 1978 Nominee, Best Original Score - The Spy Who Loved Me
- 1978 Nominee, Best Original Song - "Nobody Does It Better" from The Spy Who Loved Me
- 1973 Winner, Best Original Dramatic Score - The Way We Were
- 1973 Winner, Best Original Song - "The Way We Were" from The Way We Were
- 1973 Winner, Best Original Song Score and/or Adaptation - The Sting
- 1972 Nominee, Best Original Song - "Life Is What You Make It" from Kotch
Trivia
In 1973, he became the first person to win three Academy Awards in the same evening.
In 1977, he wrote the score for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, as John Barry was unable to work in the United Kingdom due to tax reasons. To date, this is the only Bond film incorporating the "disco" score.
American evangelist Jerry Falwell refused to rule out the possibility of Hamlisch being the Antichrist in response to a direct query on the matter from comedian Al Franken[1].
See also
- List of people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award
External links
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
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