Celebrity Graveland

June 2, 1944 – August 6, 2012

In the entertainment industry, there is an accomplishment that only a handful of people have been able to attain. The industry loves to reward its members with awards like Emmys (TV), Grammys (Music), Oscars (Movies) and Tonys (Broadway). Only an elite few artists have won all four; collectively known as the “EGOT.”

By the time composer Marvin Hamlisch was 30, he had already won two of the four.

And that was BEFORE he even gave us his most monumental work.

A child prodigy on the piano, Marvin Hamlisch was always destined for greatness. At age 7, he was accepted into a pre-college Julliard program. His first job was playing piano for the Broadway musical, Funny Girl, starring Barbara Streisand; a partnership that would define much of both of their careers. His first hit song was Lesley Gore’s “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” which hit number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. A few more hits with Gore followed and he found his way into writing scores for movies.

Then the 1970s came.

Hamlisch is one of only a few people to win 3 Oscars (O) in a single year. And he did it with TWO different movies, winning for both The Way We Were (with Streisand) and The Sting (spawning his biggest hit to that point with his adaptation of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer.”) The same year, he won 4 Grammys (G) for the same projects.

In 1975, Hamlisch made his Broadway debut, composing the music for A Chorus Line. The show was a smash hit and its 6,137 performances remained a Broadway record for nearly 3 decades. Naturally, the powers-that-be loved it and Hamlisch won a Tony (T). And just for good measure, A Chorus Line also won a Pulitzer Prize for drama, placing Hamlisch alongside fellow legend Richard Rodgers, as the only two “PEGOT” winners in history.

Hamlisch’s career continued to sail along. He followed A Chorus Line with another 7 shows including They’re Playing Our Song, The Goodbye Girl and The Sweet Smell of Success. He wrote the Carly Simon hit “Nobody Does It Better” which famously opened the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me. He had to wait all the way until 1995 to win his Emmy (E) when he once again teamed up with Babs for Barbara Streisand: The Concert.

Hamlisch was also a tireless conductor. He held pops conductor positions with NINE orchestras in cities from San Diego to Pittsburgh. His work and impact on the American music scene spanned generations and remains as influential today as it was then.

Marvin Hamlisch died of respiratory arrest after collapsing suddenly at the age of 68. At the Academy Awards the following spring, his good friend, Barbara Streisand, sang “The Way We Were” in tribute to him during the In Memoriam.

Burial

Mt. Zion Cemetery – Queens NY

 

Specific Location

Beth Avrohom Society; Path 28R, Gate 12, Grave 97 – Walk down the hill on Path 28 watching for the numbered gate marked “12” on your left. Marvin is buried in the row through this gate about halfway across the section.

 

 

This entry was posted on June 15, 2026 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Mt. Zion Cemetery (NY) with tags Composers, EGOT, Mt. Zion Cemetery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.