Marilyn
Bergman,
the
Oscar-winning
lyricist
who
teamed
with
husband
Alan
Bergman
on
“The
Way
We
Were,”
“How
Do
You
Keep
the
Music
Playing?”
and
hundreds
of
other
songs,
died
at
her
Los
Angeles
home
Saturday.
She
was
93.
She
died
of
respiratory
failure
not
related
to
COVID-19,
according
to
a
representative,
Jason
Lee.
Her
husband
was
at
her
bedside
when
she
died.
The
Bergmans,
who
married
in
1958,
were
among
the
most
enduring,
successful
and
productive
songwriting
partnerships,
specialising
in
introspective
ballades
for
film,
television
and
the
stage
that
combined
the
romance
of
Tin
Pan
Alley
with
the
polish
of
contemporary
pop.
They
worked
with
some
of
the
world's
top
melodists,
including
Marvin
Hamlisch,
Cy
Coleman
and
Michel
Legrand,
and
were
covered
by
some
of
the
world's
greatest
singers,
from
Frank
Sinatra
and
Barbra
Streisand
to
Aretha
Franklin
and
Michael
Jackson.
“If
one
really
is
serious
about
wanting
to
write
songs
that
are
original,
that
really
speak
to
people,
you
have
to
feel
like
you
created
something
that
wasn't
there
before
—
which
is
the
ultimate
accomplishment,
isn't
it?”
Marilyn
Bergman
told
The
Huffington
Post
in
2013.
“And
to
make
something
that
wasn't
there
before,
you
have
to
know
what
came
before
you.”
Their
songs
included
the
sentimental
Streisand-Neil
Diamond
duet
“You
Don't
Bring
Me
Flowers,”
Sinatra's
snappy
“Nice
'n'
Easy”
and
Dean
Martin's
dreamy
“Sleep
Warm.”
They
helped
write
the
uptempo
themes
to
the
1970s
sitcoms
“Maude”
and
“Good
Times”
and
collaborated
on
words
and
music
for
the
1978
Broadway
show
“Ballroom.”
But
they
were
best
known
for
their
contributions
to
films,
turning
out
themes
sometimes
remembered
more
than
the
movies
themselves.
Among
the
highlights:
Stephen
Bishop's
“It
Might
Be
You,”
from
“Tootsie”;
Noel
Harrison's
“The
Windmills
of
Your
Mind,”
from
“The
Thomas
Crown
Affair”;
and,
for
“Best
Friends,”
the
James
Ingram-Patti
Austin
duet
“How
Do
You
Keep
the
Music
Playing?”
Their
peak
was
“The
Way
We
Were,”
from
the
Streisand-Robert
Redford
romantic
drama
of
the
same
name.
Set
to
Hamlisch's
moody,
pensive
melody
with
Streisand's
voice,
it
was
the
top-selling
song
of
1974
and
an
instant
standard,
proof
that
well
into
the
rock
era,
the
public
still
embraced
an
old-fashioned
ballad.
Fans
would
have
struggled
to
identify
a
picture
of
the
Bergmans,
or
even
recognize
their
names,
but
they
had
no
trouble
summoning
the
words
to
“The
Way
We
Were”:
“Memories,
may
be
beautiful
and
yet
/
What's
too
painful
to
remember
/
We
simply
choose
to
forget
/
So
it's
the
laughter
/
We
will
remember
/
Whenever
we
remember
/
The
way
we
were.”
The
Bergmans
won
three
Oscars
—
for
“The
Way
We
Were,”
“Windmills
of
Your
Mind”
and
the
soundtrack
to
Streisand's
“Yentl”
—
and
received
16
nominations,
three
of
them
in
1983
alone.
They
also
won
two
Grammys
and
four
Emmys
and
were
inducted
into
the
Songwriters
Hall
of
Fame.
Marilyn
Bergman
became
the
first
woman
elected
to
the
American
Society
of
Composers,
Authors
and
Publishers
and
later
served
as
the
chair
and
president.
She
was
also
the
first
chair
of
the
National
Recorded
Sound
Preservation
Board
of
the
Library
of
Congress.
Streisand
worked
with
them
throughout
her
career,
recording
more
than
60
of
their
songs
and
dedicating
an
entire
album,
“What
Matters
Most,”
to
their
material.
The
Bergmans
met
her
when
she
was
18,
a
nightclub
singer,
and
soon
became
close
friends.
“I
just
love
their
words,
I
love
the
sentiment,
I
love
their
exploration
of
love
and
relationships,”
Streisand
told
The
Associated
Press
in
2011.
Like
Streisand,
the
Bergmans
were
Jews
from
lower-middle-class
families
in
Brooklyn.
They
were
born
in
the
same
hospital,
Alan
four
years
earlier
than
Marilyn,
whose
unmarried
name
was
Katz,
and
they
were
raised
in
the
same
neighbourhood
and
were
fans
of
music
and
movies
since
childhood.
They
both
moved
to
Los
Angeles
in
1950
-
Marilyn
had
studied
English
and
psychology
at
New
York
University
-
but
didn't
meet
until
a
few
years
later,
when
they
were
working
for
the
same
composer.
The
Bergmans
appeared
to
be
free
of
the
boundaries
and
tensions
of
many
songwriting
teams.
They
likened
their
chemistry
to
housework
(one
washes,
one
dries)
or
to
baseball
(pitching
and
catching),
and
were
so
in
tune
with
each
other
that
they
struggled
to
recall
who
wrote
a
given
lyric.
“Our
partnership
as
writers
or
as
husband
and
wife?”
Marilyn
told
The
Huffington
Post
when
asked
about
their
relationship.
“I
think
the
aspects
of
both
are
the
same:
Respect,
trust,
all
of
that
is
necessary
in
a
writing
partnership
or
a
business
partnership
or
in
a
marriage.”
Besides
her
husband,
Bergman
is
survived
by
their
daughter,
Julie
Bergman.