Date of Birth
22 March 1930,
New York, New York, USA
Stephen
Joshua Sondheim
Mini Biography
Sondheim's work as a composer-lyricist over the past four decades has set the standard for modern American musical theater. He has won a record seven Tony awards for his songwriting, and received a Pulitzer Prize for "Sunday in the Park with George". Sondheim was an unpaid (and uncredited) clapper boy on Beat the Devil (1953). He tried out as a contestant on "The $64,000 Question" (1955) in 1955. While not chosen, he did identify 19 of the 21 films John Ford had directed up to that point.
IMDb Mini Biography By:
Andrew Milner
Trivia
Born at 3:30am-EST.
His very first job when he graduated Williams College was to head to LA and work as an assistant writer on the hit early sitcom, "Topper" (1953)_.
Won the Pulitzer Prize for his musical "Sunday in the Park with George".
Was taught by broadway legend, Oscar Hammerstein II.
Provides the voice of Rose's father on the original cast album to Gypsy (1962) in the track "Some People". He reads the line "You ain't getting eighty-eight cents out of me, Rose" & it is practically snarled. Sondheim claims this is because he was incredibly frustrated with Ethel Merman (the actress who played Rose), who refused to read the line "& you can go to hell".
His musical, "Merrily we Roll Along", was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2001 (2000 season) for Best New Musical.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 (1999 season) for Outstanding Musical Production.
He was awarded the 2004 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Outstanding Musical Production of 2003 for Pacific Overtures performed at the Donmar Warehouse.
He was awarded the 1989 London Evening standard Theatre Award's Special Award for Lifetime Achievement to Theatre.
Katharine Hepburn was his neighbor in New York City for many years.
He was awarded the 1996 London Evening standard Theatre Award for Best Musical with James Lapine for Passion (1999).
Shares birthday with fellow musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Has won eight Tony Award: in 1963, with his music and lyrics as part of the Best Musical win for "Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, A"; in 1971, as Best Score (Musical) and Best Lyrics (Musical) for "Company"; in 1972, as Best Score, both Composer and Lyricist, for "Follies"; in 1973, as Best Score (Musical), both Music and lyrics, for "Little Night Music, A"; in 1979, as Best Score, both music and lyrics, for "Sweeney Todd,"; in 1988, as Best Score (Musical), both music and lyrics, for "Into the Woods"; and in 1994, as Best Score, both music and lyrics, for "Passion". He was also Tony-nominated six other times: in 1958, his lyrics as part of a Best Musical nomination for "West Side Story"; in 1960, his lyrics as part of a Best Musical nomination for "Gypsy"; in 1965, as Best Composer and Lyricist with collaborator Richard Rodgers for "Do I Hear a Waltz?"; in 1976, as Best Score, both music and lyrics, for "Pacific Overtures"; in 1982, as Best Score, both Music and lyrics, for "Merrily We Roll Along"; and in 1984, as Best Score, both music and lyrics, for "Sunday in the Park with George".
Is aficionado of puzzles, according to The New York Times.
Stephen Sondheim was the Turner Classic Movies programmer for March 22, 2005, the cable network's way of honoring him on his 75th birthday. The six films he picked for his birthday tribute were The Mind Reader (1933), starring the under-appreciated Warren William as a con-man posing as a clairvoyant; The Clock (1945), Vincente Minnelli's classic film of war-time love, starring Judy Garland & Robert Walker; Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende (1955)), the Ingmar Bergman classic on which he based his "Little Night music, A"; Out of the Fog (1941), an ur-noir starring the ur-Brando, the great John Garfield, plus the always intriguing Ida Lupino; _Night Must Fall (1937/I)_, the classic thriller in which Robert Montgomery first played against type, this time as a serial killer who carries around a head in a hat-box; and _Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1938)_, starring brassy Glenda Farrell as a brassy female reporter who never goes near Chinatown.
Was mentor to Jonathan Larson, creator of "Rent" and "Tick, Tick . . . BOOM!".
He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1996 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.
His two favorites among his own songs are "Someone in a Tree" from "Pacific Overtures," and "The Miller's Son," from "A Little Night music."
Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry has, up to now, named every official episode of Desperate Housewives after Sondheim's works.
Alumni of George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania. His first musical was called "By George" about life at the Bucks Country Boarding School. It was written and performed when he was a student.
Member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Williams College.
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975.
"My idea of heaven is not writing."
On stage, generally speaking, the Story is stopped or held back by songs, because that's the convention. Audiences enjoy the song and the singer, that's the point. Static action - if that's not an oxymoron - is accepted. It's what writer Burt Shevelove used to call "savouring the moment". That's a very tricky business on film. It's fine if the songs are presentational, as in a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers-style movie where you watch them for the fun of it, but not with storytelling songs. When the song is part of the action and working as dialogue, even two minutes is way too long.
