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Marvin Hamlisch
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Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (born 2 June 1944) is an American composer. He with Richard Rodgers are the only two individuals to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
isch was born in New York City to Viennese Jewish parents, Lily Schachter and Max Hamlisch. His was a musical family with his father being an accordionist and bandleader. Marvin Hamlisch was a child prodigy and by age five he began mimicking music he heard on the radio on the piano.
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Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (born 2 June 1944) is an American composer. He with Richard Rodgers are the only two individuals to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, a Tony, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Biography
Hamlisch was born in New York City to Viennese Jewish parents, Lily Schachter and Max Hamlisch. His was a musical family with his father being an accordionist and bandleader. Marvin Hamlisch was 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. His first job in "the business" was as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand. Shortly after that he was hired by producer Sam Spiegel to play piano at Spiegel's parties. This connection led to his first film score, The Swimmer.
Hamlisch later attended night classes at Queens College. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968. In 2007, he received the Q Award, presented to Queens College alumni who have served as role models for the college.
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. In addition, Hamlisch co-wrote the song "California Nights" with Howard Liebling, which was recorded by Lesley Gore on her 1967 hit album titled the same. The song was on the pop charts as high as number 16.
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 (for which he won both a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize), They're Playing Our Song (loosely based on his relationship with Carole Bayer Sager), 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 romantic relationship with Carole Bayer Sager ended, but their songwriting relationship continued. In 1983 the musical Jean failed in the United Kingdom and never appeared in the US. In 1986, Smile was a mixed success, but he did gain some note for the song Disneyland. He won no awards in music, theater, or film during the 1980s.
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 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 musical version 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), the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, and most recently, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
He is one of only twelve people to win all four major US performing awards, Emmy Award, Grammy Award, the Oscar and Tony Award. (See List of people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. He and Richard Rodgers are the only two to have won all four of those plus a Pulitzer Prize.
He was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 2008, Marvin appeared as a judge in the Canadian reality series "Triple Threat" which aired on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). The show was aimed to provide a training bursary to a talented youth who could be a leader in song, dance, and acting.
Work
Theatre productions
Film
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 second person to win three Academy Awards in the same evening after Billy Wilder in 1960.
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 most disco-oriented Bond score.
In 1994, he conducted the Boston Pops for their annual Fourth of July concert in Boston.
In 1996, in his HBO stand-up special, comedian Jon Stewart mentioned Hamlisch during a bit about an appearance on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Stewart claims that he and Hamlisch were sitting backstage during the beginning of the show, when Kathie Lee intimated that no one in the audience knew who the (then-fledgeling) comedian was. Hamlisch turned to Stewart and said, "Oooh, burn."
He has composed musical scores for over 40 musicals.
Hamlisch composed "Theme Song for Peaboy" for Late Night with David Letterman.
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.
When Mad Magazine ran a parody of the movie The Sting, the first-page panel showed a building in the background with messages on two adjacent windows: "Scott Joplin--Music." "Marvin Hammisch, Exploiter."
Hamlisch guest starred in an episode of Caroline in the City as himself. In the episode a character named Richard stole Hamlisch's Grammy for "The Way We Were" mistakenly thinking that Hamlisch had stolen the tune from him when he was a student at a music camp.
In the 2008 movie Role Models, Christopher Mintz-Plasse states that people say he looks like a young Marvin Hamlisch, to which he replies, "Who the fuck is Marvin Hamlisch?!" Paul Rudd's character then says, "He wrote the music to The Sting," to which Sean William Scott says, "That's a good movie."
See also
- List of persons who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards
Further reading
- Hamlisch, Marvin (1992). The way I was. Scribner; 1st edition ISBN 0684193272
- Mandelbaum, Ken (1990). A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett. St Martins Press ISBN 0312042809
- Viagas, Robert (1990). On the Line - The Creation of A Chorus Line. Limelight Editions; 2nd edition ISBN 0879103361
- Kelly, Kevin (1990). One Singular Sensation: The Michael Bennett Story. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 038526125X.
- Stevens, Gary (2000). The Longest Line: Broadway's Most Singular Sensation: A Chorus Line. Applause Books ISBN 1557832218
- Flinn, Denny Martin (1989). What They Did for Love: The Untold Story Behind the Making of "A Chorus Line."' Bantam ISBN 0553345931
External links
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