Hamlisch Marvin, full name Marvin Frederick Hamlisch, *2 June 1944 New York, †6 August 2012 Los Angeles, American composer, pianist, and arranger. In 1951, he studied at the Juilliard School of Music and then at Queen’s College in New York, attracted attention for his improvisational skills. At the age of 18, he became music director at the Equity Library Theatre Production in New York. The success of his song Travellin’ Man, performed by L. Minnelli (1963), sparked Hamlisch’s interest in songwriting. In 1965, L. Gore popularized Hamlisch’s first hit, Sunshine, Lollipops and Roses, and Minnelli hired him as a pianist for her stage recitals. In 1968, Hamlisch arrived in Hollywood: he wrote music for The Swimmer, then for films such as Take the Money and Run, The April Fools (1969), Kotch (the hit Life Is What You Make It), Bananas (1971), and Save the Tiger (1973). In 1973, Hamlisch received three Oscars: for the score and title song for The Way We Were and for the adaptation of Scott Joplin’s music for The Sting. He also wrote songs for the films The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), The Spy Who Loved Me (hit Nobody Does It Better, 1977), Same Time, Next Year, Ice Castles (1978), Starting Over (1979), Ordinary People (1980), Sophie’s Choice, I Ought to Be in Pictures (1982), Shirley Valentine (1989), and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). Hamlisch also enjoyed considerable success in the field of musical theatre: A Chorus Line (1975, hits One, What I Did For Love later recorded by J. Mathis, T. Bennett, Sh. Bassey, and A. Williams, among others), They’re Playing Our Song (1979). As a pianist, Hamlisch achieved his greatest popularity in 1974, when he and his band recorded Scott Joplin’s ragtime The Entertainer for the film The Sting, which was awarded a Gold Record. He is one of 17 winners of all four major awards in the music industry: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
