Michel Legrand

Known for SoundBorn 1932-02-24Died 2019-01-26Bécon-les-Bruyères, Paris, France

Michel Jean Legrand (24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, jazz pianist, and singer. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written more than 200 film and television scores, in addition to many songs. His scores for two of the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), earned Legrand his first Academy Award nominations. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and additional Oscars for Summer of '42 (1971) and Barbra Streisand's Yentl (1983). Legrand was born in Paris, France, to his father, Raymond Legrand, who was himself a conductor and composer, and his mother, Marcelle Der-Mikaëlian, who was the sister of conductor Jacques Hélian. Raymond and Marcelle were married in 1929. His maternal grandfather was Armenian. Legrand composed more than two hundred film and television scores. He won three Oscars and five Grammys. He studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris from the age of 11, working with, among others, Nadia Boulanger and graduated with top honors as both a composer and a pianist. He burst upon the international music scene at 22 when his 1954 album I Love Paris became a surprise hit. He established his name in the United States by working with such jazz stars as Miles Davis and Stan Getz. His sister Christiane Legrand was a member of The Swingle Singers and his niece Victoria Legrand is a member of the dream pop band Beach House. Legrand composed music for Jacques Demy's films The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) (from which Recit de Cassard came and in turn, in English became the standard Watch What Happens) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), from which the relyricized "You Must Believe in Spring" is considered a jazz standard. Legrand appeared and performed in Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7 (1961). He also composed music for Joseph Losey's Eva (1962), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) (which features "The Windmills of Your Mind"), Ice Station Zebra (1968), The Picasso Summer (1969), The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970), The Go-Between (1971), Summer of '42 (1971), Clint Eastwood's Breezy (1973), The Three Musketeers (1973), Orson Welles's last-completed film F for Fake (1974), TriStar Pictures 1998 family film Madeline, and would later compose the score for Welles's posthumously released movie The Other Side of the Wind (2018). He also composed the score for Yentl (1983), as well as the film score for Louis Malle's film Atlantic City (1980). His instrumental version of the theme from Brian's Song charted 56th in 1972 on the Billboard's pop chart. Legrand died of sepsis, during the night of 25–26 January 2019, at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine, where he had been hospitalized for two weeks for a pulmonary infection. His funeral was held in Paris at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on 1 February 2019. He was interred at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. He remained active until his death and had concerts scheduled to take place in the spring. ... Source: Article "Michel Legrand" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.Read more

Movies & web series

Un film et son époque

Carnaval

The Adventures Of Don Quixote

Quincy Jones, Music Man

Spécial cinéma

Michel Legrand, sans demi-mesure

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

To Catch a Pebble

The Lovers of the France

Un coupable

Once Upon a Time... Planet Earth

Visages de Paris

Flight from Paradise

Cinépanorama

Françoise Dorléac, from The Man from Rio to The Young Girls of Rochefort

Le Grand Escroc

Once Upon a Time... The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Once Upon a Time… Man

The Jesse Owens Story

The Plastic Dome of Norma Jean

One Can Say It Without Getting Angry

The Beaches of Agnès

Le Grand Échiquier

Once Upon a Time... Life

Behind the Screen

The Lovely Month of May

A Swelled Head

Discorama

Once Upon a Time... The Discoverers

Once Upon a Time... The Americas

A Woman Called Golda

Once Upon a Time... The Explorers

Jacques Demy: The Pink and the Black

La La La

Promises to Keep

The Young Girls of Rochefort

Our Time

Vivre Sa Vie

Cléo from 5 to 7

Numéro un

Once Upon a Time… Space

F for Fake

Band of Outsiders

Lust

The Young Girls Turn 25

It's Good to Be Alive

Amber Wings

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg