Stephen Sondheim
Biography
Stephen Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist who helped reinvent the American musical with his complex music and lyrics. Born in Manhattan and mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II, he first wrote lyrics for West Side Story (1957) and Gypsy (1959), then supplied both music and lyrics for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962). Five of his musicals won the Tony Award for Best Musical, among them Company (1970), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), and Passion (1994). He also wrote Follies (1971), Pacific Overtures (1976), Into the Woods (1987), and Assassins (1990), while his Sunday in the Park with George (1984) earned the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Dick Tracy (1990), and documentaries about his shows included Original Cast Album: Company (1970) and Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened... (2016). He died in 2021.
91years old at death
- Born Manhattan
- Died Roxbury
- Star sign: AriesThe sign runs March 21 to April 19
- Stephen Joshua Sondheim (birth name)
Movie Career
- Films
- 6
- Career span
- 52 years1970 to 2022
Genres
- Documentary50%, 3 films
- Crime33%, 2 films
- Drama33%, 2 films
- Music33%, 2 films
- Horror17%, 1 film
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About the name
Sondheim wrote the lyrics for a parody of "The Girl from Ipanema" called "The Boy From..." in the off-Broadway revue The Mad Show in 1966. The song was credited to "Esteban Río Nido", which means "Stephen River Nest" in Spanish.
Behind the camera
In 1981 Sondheim started Young Playwrights Inc., which gives young people a way into writing for the theater, and he was its executive vice-president.
Early training
Sondheim met with Babbitt weekly in New York City, four hours at a time. Sondheim said they spent the first hour analyzing Rodgers and Hart or George Gershwin.
Early training
In 1989, Cameron Mackintosh set up a Contemporary Theatre Chair at the University of Oxford and asked Sondheim to serve as the first of a series of artist-in-residence professors. People from around the world applied to take the course.
Stephen Sondheim movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery2022 Crime, Drama, Thrilleras Stephen Sondheim
IMDb rating 7.1534K votes
Most often with
Lonny Price directed two of these films. Seven actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Dean Jones's page
Patti LuPone's page
Jackie Hoffman's page
Barbara Barrie's page
Susan Browning's page
Charles Braswell's page
All films by Lonny Price
Also two films together1 more actor
- Hal PrinceBest Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened... (2016) and Original Cast Album: Company (1970)
When several people share the same number of films, the ones with the most films on Netflix are in the chart.
Awards
Twelve awards and honors from 1963 to 2016, nine of them major.
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | |||
| 1991 | Best Original Song | Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man) | Won |
| Tony Awards | |||
| 1994 | Best Original Score | Passion | Won |
| 1988 | Best Original Score | Into the Woods | Won |
| 1979 | Best Original Score | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Won |
| 1973 | Best Original Score | A Little Night Music | Won |
| 1972 | Best Original Score | Follies | Won |
| 1971 | Best Original Score | Company | Won |
| 1963 | Best Musical | A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | Won |
| Grammy Awards | |||
| 2007 | Grammy Trustees Award | Won | |
| Other honors | |||
| 2016 | Carl Sandburg Literary Award | Won | |
| 2015 | Presidential Medal of Freedom | Won | |
| Kennedy Center Honors | Won | ||
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.