MARILYN BERGMAN,
1928-2022
Lyricist and former ASCAP president Marilyn Bergman, whose work with her husband, Alan Bergman, was marked by the Oscar- and Grammy-winning “The Way We Were,” TV themes and the Neil Diamond/Barbra Streisand hit “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” died Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 93.
The Bergmans worked with composers like Marvin Hamlisch, Michel Legrand and Johnny Mandel over a career that lasted from the late 1950s into the 21st century. Their songs also spanned the Oscar-winning “The Windmills of Your Mind,” the Frank Sinatra hit “Nice ‘n’ Easy” and the oft-recorded “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” Their TV work included themes for Maude, Good Times and Alice. The films Yentl and Sybil boasted their scores.
The Bergmans saw early success with Dean Martin’s “Sleep Warm” and the Broadway musical Something More!
The duo was most closely associated with Streisand, with whom they began a relationship with 1971's “The Summer Knows.” Having recorded dozens of their songs, Streisand released an all-Bergmans album, What Matters Most, in 2011. “Marilyn and Alan Bergman were like family, as well as brilliant lyricists,” she said in a statement. “We met over 60 years ago backstage at a little night club and never stopped loving each other and working together. Their songs are timeless and so is our love. May she rest in peace.”
Bergman was introduced to songwriting by a friend’s uncle, Bob Russell, whom she would visit after her classes at the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and play piano while he wrote. She studied psychology and English at NYU, but after she suffered a shoulder injury in 1956, Russell encouraged her to try songwriting. Composer Lew Spence hired her and introduced her to Alan, now 96, with whom she began collaborating immediately. They were married in 1958.
The Bergmans won three Academy Awards, three Emmys and two Grammys. The Recording Academy presented them with a Governors Award in 2002 and a Trustees Award in 2013. The pair were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.
The first woman to serve as president of ASCAP, Marilyn Bergman held the position from 1994 to 2009.
Current ASCAP president and chairman Paul Williams called Bergman “one of the greatest lyricists who ever lived and truly ASCAP royalty," continuing, "She was a brilliant songwriter who together with her husband, Alan Bergman, gave us some of the most beautiful and enduring lyrics of all time. She was a tireless and fierce advocate for music creators not only during her term as president and chairman of ASCAP but throughout her life. Our community will miss her intelligence, her wit and her wisdom. Alan, we mourn with you."
