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| Jule Styne |
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Julius Kerwin Stein |
| Born |
December 31, 1905(1905-12-31) |
| Origin |
London, England |
| Died |
September 20, 1994 (aged 88) |
| Occupations |
Songwriter |
Jule Styne (December 31, 1905 – September 20,
1994) was a British-born American songwriter especially famous for a series of
Broadway
musicals,
which included several very well known and frequently revived
shows.
Biography
Early
life
Styne was born in London,
England as Julius
Kerwin Stein of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine.[1] At the
age of eight he moved with his family to Chicago, where at an early age he began taking
piano lessons. He proved to be a
prodigy and
performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies before he was ten years
old.
Career
Styne attended Chicago Musical College, but before then he had
already attracted attention of another teenager, Mike Todd, later a
successful film producer, who commissioned him to write a song for
a musical act that he was creating. It would be the first of over
1,500 published songs Styne would compose in his career.
Styne established his own dance band, which brought him to the
notice of Hollywood, where he was championed by Frank Sinatra and
where he began a collaboration with lyricist Sammy Cahn, with whom he wrote many songs
for the movies, including "It's Been a Long, Long Time," "Five
Minutes More," and the Oscar-winning "Three Coins in the
Fountain." He collaborated on the score for the 1955 musical
film My
Sister Eileen with Leo Robin. Ten of his songs were nominated
for the Oscar, many written with Cahn, including "It Seems I Heard
That Song Before", "I'll Walk Alone", "It's Magic", and "I Fall in Love Too Easily."
In 1947 Styne wrote his first score for a Broadway
musical, High Button Shoes with Cahn, and
over the next several decades wrote the scores for many Broadway
shows, most notably Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes, Peter Pan (additional
music), Bells Are Ringing,
Gypsy, Do Re Mi, Funny
Girl, Sugar (with a story based on the
movie Some
Like It Hot, but all new music), and the Tony-winning Hallelujah,
Baby!.
His collaborators included, among others, Sammy Cahn, Leo Robin, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Stephen Sondheim, and Bob Merrill.
Styne wrote original music for the short-lived, themed amusement park Freedomland
U.S.A. which opened on June 19, 1960.
Styne was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in
1972 and the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981, and he was a recipient
of a Drama Desk Special Award and
the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990.
Songs
A selection of the many songs that Styne wrote:
Credits
See also
External
links
Wikis
Quiz
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