Stephen Sondheim Biography

Fast Facts

• Having been abandoned as a child by his father and emotionally scarred by his mother, he found a father figure and mentor in family friend Oscar Hammerstein II
• Made his mark on Broadway as lyricist for the groundbreaking 1957 musical West Side Story
• Broadway credit as a composer was delayed when Ethel Merman balked at his hiring two years later for the musical Gypsy; he did write the lyrics, while Jule Styne composed the music
• First music-and-lyrics credit came with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962
• Wrote "Send in the Clowns" for 1973's A Little Night Music; it was recorded by Judy Collins in 1975 and became a pop hit
• A fondness for puzzles led to cowriting, with actor Anthony Perkins, an original screenplay for the intricate mystery The Last of Sheila (1973)
• Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for the musical Sunday in the Park With George, about pointillist painter George Seurat
• National Endowment for the Arts awarded him the National Medal of Freedom in 1996
• Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015