His first collaboration with Alan Jay Lerner was a 1942 musical
adaptation of the farce "The Patsy", called "The Life of the Party"; it
was written for a Detroit stock theater company.
Has won three Tony Awards, all in collaboration with Alan Jay Lerner: two in
1957 for "My Fair Lady," as Best Composer and for his music as part of
a Best Musical win; and one in 1974 for Gigi" as Best Score, his music
with Lerner's lyrics,
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume
Two, 1986-1990, pages 545-547. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1999.
Sued Billy Gray after he recorded Sid Kuller's satiric review of "My Fair Lady" called "My Fairfax Lady", which had enjoyed a five-year run at Gray's comedy club, the Band Box, from 1956 to 1961.
Grew up in Berlin, where he attended a Prussian cadet school from the age of five until he was thirteen. He was a concert pianist by the age of fourteen.
Worked as a cowboy, boxer and pianist before becoming a composer.
Alan Jay Lerner and his musical, "Brigadoon" at the Goodman Theatre was awarded the 2014 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Large Musical Production.
Alan Jay Lerner and his musical, "My Fair Lady" at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 1988 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Musical Production.