MARVIN HAMSLISCH who composed music for “The Sting” and James Bond’s “The Spy Who Loved Me” gone suddenly at 68 while working on score for new LIBERACE biopic.
Hamlisch collapsed and died after a brief illness, his publicist told media.
Hamlisch was scheduled to fly to Nashville, Tenn., this week to see a production of his JERRY LEWIS musical "The Nutty Professor," Sunshine said.
Hamlisch composed more than 40 film scores including "Sophie's Choice," "Ordinary People," "The Way We Were" and "Take the Money and Run."
He won his third Oscar for his adaptation of Scott Joplin's music for "The Sting”
On Broadway, Hamlisch received both Tony and Pulitzer Prize for "A Chorus Line" in 1976.
Hamlisch even scored chartbusters, writing the No. 1 R&B hit "Break It to Me Gently" for Aretha Franklin. He won the 1974 Grammy for song of the year, "The Way We Were," performed by Barbra Streisand.
"He was classic and one of a kind," Aretha Franklin mourned. "Who will ever forget `The Way We Were'?"
In his autobiography, "The Way I Was," Hamlisch admitted he was worried about not living uip to his father's expectations.
"By the time Gershwin was your age, he was dead," the elder Hamlisch a Viennese-born musician, admonmished tell his son. "And he'd written a concerto. Where's your concerto, Marvin?”
Yet, Hamslich contributed far more to the world of music and entertainment than just a mere concerto.
“Nobody does it better”, he wrote for “The Spy Who Loved Me”. Nobody DID like Marvin.
Adios, maestro.
