Along with her husband and collaborator Alan, Bergman was nominated for 16 Academy Awards over the course of her career and won three, including the song “The Way We Were” from the 1973 film that shared her name and starring Barbra Streisand. . The song, with music by composer Marvin Hamlisch, also won two Grammy Awards.
“She has been on the decline for the past few years, and in the last few weeks, it was clear that she was preparing to leave, and she died very peacefully without any pain or struggle,” Julie Bergman told CNN in a phone call. . “My father and I were with her, and she was beautiful, and she looked beautiful, and she was very peaceful.”
Bergman had “some pneumonia that causes respiratory failure in patients like this,” his daughter said.
The Bergmans won two other Oscars for their song “Windmills of Your Mind” on “The Thomas Crown Affair” in 1968 and for the score for “Yentl” in 1983, which was also directed by and starring Streisand. The couple also won four Emmys and two Golden Globes, among others.
Husband and wife “always” worked together, Bergman said at a 1996 workshop for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). “We think separately when we’re not together,” she said, “so we’ll bring something different into the room when we get together to work.”
Bergman became the first woman elected to the ASCAP Board of Directors in 1985, according to ASCAP, and was elected President and Chairman of the Board in 1994. In 1980, Bergman and her husband were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. .
Streisand reacted to the news of
Bergman’s death in a statement on Twitter, saying that Marilyn and Alan Bergman “were like a family, as well as brilliant lyricists.”
“We met more than 60 years ago backstage in a small nightclub, and we never stopped loving and working together. Their songs are timeless, just like our love,” Streisand said. “Rest in peace.”
Composer Paul Williams, current president and president of ASCAP, called Bergman “one of the greatest lyricists who ever lived” and a “brilliant composer who together with her husband … gave us some of the most beautiful and most beautiful lyrics. enduring for all time.. ”
“She was a tireless and fierce advocate for music creators, not only during her tenure as president of ASCAP, but throughout her life,” Williams said in a statement. “Our community will miss his intelligence, his wit and his wisdom.”
