Marvin Hamlisch, acclaimed composer and arranger, dies at 68

NEW YORK (JTA) — Marvin Hamlisch, the acclaimed composer and arranger of dozens of Broadway plays and films, has died at 68.

Hamlisch died Monday in Los Angeles following a brief illness.

He perhaps was best known for his work on the long-running Broadway musical “A Chorus Line,” which won several Tony Awards and for which Hamlisch won the Pulitzer Prize.

Along with the Pulitzer, Hamlisch earned three Academy Awards, four Emmys, a Tony, four Grammys and three Golden Globes — a rare combination of honors in the entertainment industry. Hamlisch composed more than 40 film scores, including for “Sophie’s Choice,” “Ordinary People” and “Take the Money and Run.”

Hamlisch was born in New York to Viennese Jewish parents and at 7 became the youngest student ever accepted into the city’s prestigious Juilliard School. He started on Broadway as a rehearsal pianist and assistant vocal arranger for “Funny Girl,” starring Barbra Streisand, for whom he would later compose “The Way We Were.”

In addition to his work on Broadway musicals and movies, Hamlisch also was a conductor and led symphony orchestras across the United States, including in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, San Diego, Seattle, Dallas and Pasadena, California.