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Marilyn Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist of 'The Way We Were,' 'The Windmills of Your Mind,' dies, 93
Obituaries
Marilyn Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist of ‘The Way We Were,’ ‘The Windmills of Your Mind,’ dies at 93
Oscar-winning songwriters Marilyn and Alan Bergman in 1980. (MCLENDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
By Tim Greiving
Today at 1:05 p.m. EST
Marilyn Bergman, an Oscar-winning lyricist who collaborated with her husband, Alan Bergman, on some of the most enduring pop songs heard at the movies, among them “The Way We Were” and “The Windmills of Your Mind,” died Jan. 8 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 93. ... The cause was respiratory failure, said her daughter, Julie Bergman.
The Bergmans wed in 1958 and spent a lifetime marrying memorable words to melodies by Michel Legrand, Marvin Hamlisch, Quincy Jones, John Williams and Dave Grusin. Their songs, many of them full of romance and regret, were interpreted by entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Neil Diamond and — most frequently — Barbra Streisand. ... “Their spectacular marriage gives their lyrics an authenticity,” Streisand wrote in the liner notes of her 2011 album “What Matters Most,” filled with Bergman-penned songs, “making them both deeply personal and, at the same time, completely universal.”
“Memories light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were,” Streisand sang to Hamlisch’s bittersweet melody during the opening titles for the 1973 film “The Way We Were,” which starred the singer as a political Jewish firebrand in love with Robert Redford’s complacent WASP writer.
“How do you keep the music playing?” asked another of the Bergmans’ songs, written with Legrand for the 1982 film “Best Friends” and kept alive as Tony Bennett’s concert closer for decades. “How do you make it last? How do you keep the song from fading too fast?”
The couple had early hits on the radio — the 1959 calypso song “Yellow Bird,” performed by the Mills Brothers and the 1960 Frank Sinatra song “Nice ’n’ Easy,” — but they set their sights on cinema from the start.
{snip}
Read more Washington Post obituaries
Marilyn Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist of ‘The Way We Were,’ ‘The Windmills of Your Mind,’ dies at 93
Oscar-winning songwriters Marilyn and Alan Bergman in 1980. (MCLENDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
By Tim Greiving
Today at 1:05 p.m. EST
Marilyn Bergman, an Oscar-winning lyricist who collaborated with her husband, Alan Bergman, on some of the most enduring pop songs heard at the movies, among them “The Way We Were” and “The Windmills of Your Mind,” died Jan. 8 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 93. ... The cause was respiratory failure, said her daughter, Julie Bergman.
The Bergmans wed in 1958 and spent a lifetime marrying memorable words to melodies by Michel Legrand, Marvin Hamlisch, Quincy Jones, John Williams and Dave Grusin. Their songs, many of them full of romance and regret, were interpreted by entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Neil Diamond and — most frequently — Barbra Streisand. ... “Their spectacular marriage gives their lyrics an authenticity,” Streisand wrote in the liner notes of her 2011 album “What Matters Most,” filled with Bergman-penned songs, “making them both deeply personal and, at the same time, completely universal.”
“Memories light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were,” Streisand sang to Hamlisch’s bittersweet melody during the opening titles for the 1973 film “The Way We Were,” which starred the singer as a political Jewish firebrand in love with Robert Redford’s complacent WASP writer.
“How do you keep the music playing?” asked another of the Bergmans’ songs, written with Legrand for the 1982 film “Best Friends” and kept alive as Tony Bennett’s concert closer for decades. “How do you make it last? How do you keep the song from fading too fast?”
The couple had early hits on the radio — the 1959 calypso song “Yellow Bird,” performed by the Mills Brothers and the 1960 Frank Sinatra song “Nice ’n’ Easy,” — but they set their sights on cinema from the start.
{snip}
Read more Washington Post obituaries
