Herbert Kretzmer

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Herbert Kretzmer , OBE (* 5. October 1925 in Kroonstad , Orange Free State , South Africa ; † 14. October 2020 in London , United Kingdom ) was a South African songwriter and songwriter , one for his work Tony and a Grammy Award received. In 2013 he was also nominated for an Oscar .

Life

Herbert Kretzmer's parents had fled the pogroms to South Africa as Tsarist Russian Jews and ran a small furniture business. Kretzmer attended high school in Kroonstad and later studied at Rhodes University in Grahamstown . He was married to Elisabeth Margaret Wilson from 1961 to 1973. This marriage resulted in a daughter and a son. In 1988 he married for the second time. He has three brothers. In 2011, Kretzmer was admitted to the rank of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). On April 8, 2011, he received an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University.

journalism

From 1946 he was a journalist for a cinema magazine in Johannesburg , in which he wrote weekly about films. From 1951 to 1954 he worked as a reporter for the Sunday Express . From 1954 he worked as a columnist in London , first for the Daily Sketch and then for the Sunday Dispatch until 1961. In the years 1962–1978 he wrote theater reviews for the Daily Express and from 1978 on Kretzmer wrote television reviews for the Daily Mail .

Songwriter

In 1960 he wrote the lyrics for several British television series . Kretzmer won an Ivor Novello Award for the song Goodness Gracious Me , which was sung by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren . Kretzmer took part in the song She , which was sung by Charles Aznavour and was number one in the UK for four weeks. This song has been used in several films including Notting Hill , Everyone Loves Oscar , Love and Other Disasters, and the Spanish drama Diary of a Nymphomaniac .

For his songs in the musical Les Misérables , Kretzmer received a Tony Award in 1987 and a Grammy a year later. For the film adaptation of the musical, Kretzmer worked again on the lyrics, which were sung by Hugh Jackman , among others . For his work he was nominated for an Oscar together with Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil .

Filmography

honors and awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Homepage of the artist
  2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 59647, HMSO, London, December 31, 2010, p. 11 ( PDF , English).
  3. ^ Charles Aznavour in the UK charts
personal data
SURNAME Kretzmer, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African lyricist and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Kroonstad , Orange Free State , South Africa
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 2020
Place of death London , UK