Andrew Lloyd Webber Biography

Fast Facts

• Donated a personal Picasso painting to his non-profit organization, The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, to be auctioned off
• Received a knighthood for his services to theatre in 1992 and was named an honorary life peer in 1997
• Won a Golden Satellite Award for Outstanding Original Song for "Evita" in 1997
• Founded the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation in 1992 to promote arts and culture through musical theatre scholarships and heritage projects
• Named a Kennedy Center honoree in 2006 alongside Smokey Robinson, Dolly Parton, Steven Spielberg and Zubin Mehta
• Won a Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre in 1996
• Studied History at Oxford University's Magdalen College and Music at the Royal College of Music
• Began writing music as early as six and already had a suite of six pieces ready to perform at the age of nine
• Published his first composition in The Music Teacher magazine when he was only 11 years old and later had his first song recorded by Decca Records in 1963
• Quote: "In the last few years, everything seems to have gone slightly away from music and more towards the comedy musicals, the Hairsprays and the Book of Mormons․ I just don't know if there's a public for something now which is much more serious and is old fashioned in the sense that it is melodic․"
• Quote: "The difference between success and failure in musical theater is a horrifyingly fine line, I believe that if you choose a subject purely because it appears commercial, catastrophe looms․"
• After working with Tim Rice on several occasions that included Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar, he would eventually go on to find great success with his next solo projects, Cats and later The Phantom of the Opera
• Best known as the musical theatre writer and composer who created the music for "The Phantom of the Opera," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita," and "Cats․"
• Owns six theatres in London, including the Theatre Royal and the London Palladium
• Began his career after meeting Tim Rice, frequent Disney film lyricist, in the early 1960s after which the two began writing pieces for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Has served as a producer for "Lend Me a Tenor," "Bombay Dreams," and "Daisy Pulls It Off," as well as for the London Palladium productions of "The Sound of Music" and "The Wizard of Oz․"
• Is the first person to have three musicals running in London and New York at the same time