Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did For Love

Luminaries of music and entertainment speak to the genius of Marvin Hamlisch, who was a musical prodigy who entered Juilliard, the country's most prestigious conservatory, at the age of six. Attesting to Hamlisch's brilliance and versatility are childhood companions Leslie Uggams and Christopher Walker, and celebrated composers, conductors and musicians.

The great composer Marvin Hamlisch is a mensch, a Yiddish term for a person of integrity and honor. He offered his genuine concern, time, and problem-solving skills to everyone in his life from taxi drivers to Broadway cast members to those planning events for the president of the United States and heads of state.

Pianist Kevin Cole arranged this melody of Marvin Hamlisch songs and performed them before a live audience in tribute to the great composer. The piano medley is made from three Hamlisch songs: "The Way We Were," "At the Ballet" and "What I Did for Love." Kevin Cole was a friend of Hamlisch's and is known as an interpreter of Gershwin.

The composer Marvin Hamlisch was an entertaining performer with a great sense of humor, drawing comparisons to Victor Borge.

A look at composer Marvin Hamlisch's parents, professional accordionist Max Hamlisch and "helicopter mother" Lilly Hamlisch, told through family home movies and humorous accounts from his cousin, Paul Kushner.

Marvin Hamlisch was a child prodigy at the piano and was expected to become the next Vladimir Horowitz. But as Hamlisch explains, "at a very early age it became very clear that that would drive me crazy because every time I would go to the concert to play something I would get so nervous."

Marvin Hamlisch won three Academy Awards in one evening in 1974, making him a film composer star in Hollywood. But he longed to work as a composer in Broadway theater, so he left Los Angeles to work with Michael Bennett on the then Off-Broadway theater production in the works, "A Chorus Line." As the lyricist Marilyn Bergman puts it, "Theater beckoned."

Though classically trained, Marvin Hamlisch knew he was destined for something different from an early age. "I wanted to be like Cole Porter," Hamlisch explains. Though he did not want to become the next Vladimir Horowitz, he continued his classical studies at Juilliard so he could later apply the skills he learned to what he really wanted to do.

Hamlisch's Broadway musical "Sweet Smell of Success," based on the 1950s eponymous film, earned Tony nominations for Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score. Its star John Lithgow earned the Tony for Best Actor. Lithgow describes Marvin Hamlisch's score as having hallucinogenic colors. Hear parts of the music and see annotated pages from the score in this film excerpt.

Hamlisch reveals what inspired the opening notes to "The Way We Were" and his collaborators, the lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, describe the uncanny ability Hamlisch had in putting his thoughts to music.

Remember composer, conductor & PEGOT winner Marvin Hamlisch. With new interviews with family, Barbra Streisand, Steven Soderbergh, Quincy Jones, Christopher Walken, Sir Tim Rice, Joe Torre, Woody Allen, John Lithgow, Lucie Arnaz, Ann-Margret, and others.

Marvin Hamlisch received the gift of going to Yankee Fantasy Camp from his wife, Terre Blair Hamlisch. Former Yankees manager Joe Torre, a Broadway fan, talks about getting to meet the composer.