Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (June 2, 1944 – August 6, 2012) was an American composer and conductor. He is one of few people to win
Emmy,
Grammy,
Oscar and
Tony awards, a feat dubbed the "
EGOT". He and composer
Richard Rodgers are the only people to have won those prizes and a
Pulitzer Prize ("
PEGOT").[1]
Hamlisch attended
Queens College, earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967.[3] His first job was as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl with
Barbra Streisand. Even on tour he would take time to book Kenny Veenstra's Progressive Music Studio to send musical ideas back to "Babs" in NY. Shortly afterward, producer
Sam Spiegel hired him to play piano at parties, and later to score Spiegel's 1968 film The Swimmer.[3]
Hamlisch and Liebling co-wrote the song "
California Nights", which was recorded by
Lesley Gore for her 1967 hit album of the same name. The
Bob Crewe-produced single peaked at No. 16 on the
Hot 100 in March 1967, two months after Gore had performed the song on the Batman television series, in which she guest-starred as an accomplice to
Julie Newmar's
Catwoman.
Among Hamlisch's better-known works during the 1970s were adaptations of
Scott Joplin's
ragtime music for the motion picture The Sting, including its theme song, "
The Entertainer". It hit No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and No. 3 on the Hot 100, selling nearly 2 million copies in the U.S. alone. He had great success in 1973, winning two
Academy Awards for the
title song and the score for the motion picture The Way We Were and an Academy Award for the adaptation score for The Sting.[7] He won four
Grammy Awards in 1974, two for "The Way We Were".
In 1985, he worked on
D.A.R.Y.L., a 1985 film about a boy who is in fact a U.S. military robot. He also worked on the score for The Informant! (2009), starring
Matt Damon and directed by
Steven Soderbergh.[6] Late in his life, he wrote a children's book Marvin Makes Music, which included the original music "The Music in My Mind" with words by Rupert Holmes; and the score for the
HBO film Behind the Candelabra (2013), also directed by Soderbergh and starring Matt Damon and
Michael Douglas as
Liberace.
Stage
Hamlisch's first major stage work was in 1972 playing piano for
Groucho Marx at
Carnegie Hall for An Evening with Groucho. Hamlisch acted as both
straight man and accompanist while Marx, at age 81, reminisced about his career in show business.[8] The performances were released as a two-record set, and remained very popular.[9]
At the beginning of the 1980s, his romantic relationship with Bayer Sager ended, but their songwriting relationship continued. The 1983 musical Jean Seberg, based on the life of the real-life actress, failed in its London production at the UK's
National Theatre and never played in the U.S.[11] In 1986, Smile was a mixed success and had a short run on Broadway.[6] The musical version of Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl (1993) closed after only 188 performances, although he received a
Drama Desk nomination, for Outstanding Music.[12]
Hamlisch was musical director and arranger of Barbra Streisand's 1994 concert tour of the U.S. and England as well as of the television special, Barbra Streisand: The Concert, for which he received two of his Emmys. He also conducted several tours of
Linda Ronstadt during this period, most notably on her successful 1996 Dedicated to the One I Love tour of arenas and stadiums.[18]
On July 23, 2011, Hamlisch conducted his debut concert for
Pasadena Symphony and Pops at
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Hamlisch replaced
Rachael Worby.[28] At the time of his death, he was preparing to assume responsibilities as Principal Pops Conductor for The
Philly POPS.
Hamlisch is one of only few people to win
Emmy,
Grammy,
Oscar and
Tony awards. This collection of all four is referred to as an "
EGOT". He is one of only two people to have won those four prizes and a
Pulitzer Prize (the other being
Richard Rodgers).[29] He is one of ten people to win three or more Oscars in one night and the only one other than a director or screenwriter to do so. Hamlisch also won two
Golden Globes. He earned ten
Golden Globe Award nominations, winning twice for
Best Original Song, with "Life Is What You Make It" in 1972 and "
The Way We Were" in 1974.[30]
He shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976 with
Michael Bennett,
James Kirkwood,
Nicholas Dante, and
Edward Kleban for his musical contribution to the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line.[6] Hamlisch received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 at the World Soundtrack Awards in
Ghent, Belgium. He was also inducted into the
Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2008.[31] In 2008, he appeared as a judge in the Canadian reality series Triple Sensation which aired on
CBC. The show was aimed to provide a training
bursary to a talented young man or woman with the potential to be a leader in song, dance, and acting.[32][33] In 2008, Hamlisch was also inducted into the
American Theater Hall of Fame.[34]
The
Associated Press described him as having written "some of the best-loved and most enduring songs and scores in movie history".[45] Barbra Streisand released a statement praising Hamlisch, stating it was "his brilliantly quick mind, his generosity and delicious sense of humor that made him a delight to be around".[6]Aretha Franklin called him "classic and one of a kind", and one of the "all-time great" arrangers and producers.[46] The head of the
Pasadena Symphony and Pops commented that Hamlisch had "left a very specific ... original mark on American music and added to the great American songbook with works he himself composed".[5]
At 8:00 p.m.
EDT on August 8, the marquee lights of the 40 Broadway theaters were dimmed for one minute in tribute to Hamlisch,[47][48] an honor traditionally accorded to those considered to have made significant contributions to the theater arts upon their death.[49][50][51]
Barbra Streisand,
Aretha Franklin, and
Liza Minnelli took turns singing songs by Hamlisch during a memorial service for the composer on September 18, 2012.[52] At the
2013 Academy Awards, Streisand sang "
The Way We Were" in Hamlisch's memory. On June 2, 2013, a tribute was held in New York City to remember Hamlisch in advance of the first anniversary of his death.[53] At the tribute, Staples Players, a high school theatre group from
Staples High School in
Westport, Connecticut performed a selection of material from A Chorus Line. Other veterans of the screen and stage also performed at the event.[54]
Work
Orchestral work
Hamlisch was the primary conductor for the Pittsburgh Pops from 1995 until his death.[55]
The
Dallas Symphony Orchestra performed a rare Hamlisch classical symphonic suite titled Anatomy of Peace (Symphonic Suite in one Movement For Full Orchestra/Chorus/Child Vocal Soloist) on November 19, 1991.[56] It was also performed at Carnegie Hall in 1993,[35] and in Paris in 1994 to commemorate
D-Day.[57] The work was recorded by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1992.[58]The Anatomy of Peace was a book by
Emery Reves which expressed the
world-federalist sentiments shared by
Albert Einstein and many others in the late 1940s, in the period immediately following
World War II.[59]