A prolific songwriter, composer and lyricist, Leslie Bricusse broke into showbiz right out of Cambridge when Beatrice Lillie chose him to appear with her in her revue "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie" (1954). The London native had begun to write sketches and songs for Cambridge's famed Footlight Revues, eventually serving as the group's president in 1954. In his four-decade career, Bricusse has collaborated with several prominent figures and has written or co-written many songs that have entered the popular consciousness. His first major partnership was with Anthony Newley. The pair created two well-received stage productions, Stop the World -- I Want to Get Off (1961) and The Roar of the Greasepaint -- The Smell of the Crowd (1965). The duo created such well-known songs as the Grammy®-winning "What Kind of Fool Am I?", "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)?", "The Candy Man" and the title song from the James Bond film GOLDFINGER (1964). Solo, Bricusse earned the first of his ten Academy Award nominations for the score for DOCTOR DOLITTLE, earning the statue for his bouncy patter song "Talk to the Animals". Two years later, he worked with John Williams on the musicalization of GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS and since then, the pair have collaborated on a number of movie theme songs, including "Somewhere in My Memory" from HOME ALONE (1990) and "When You're Alone" from HOOK (1991). Additionally, Bricusse enjoyed a fruitful pairing with the late Henry Mancini on several Blake Edwards' films, including VICTOR/VICTORIA (1982), for which they earned a Best Song Score Oscar®. (They later supplemented the film's soundtrack with new numbers for the 1995 stage adaptation.) In the last decade, Bricusse wrote an ill-fated musical about Sherlock Holmes (1989) and spent the better part of the time polishing a stage version of Jekyll and Hyde. First begun in 1990, Jekyll and Hyde went through a number of incarnations, including a concept album, several stage productions, a second album and finally a touring production that opened on Broadway to mixed reviews but cheering audiences in 1997. Bricusse has also written a number of screenplays (alone or in collaboration), including CHARLEY MOON (1956) and BACHELOR OF HEARTS (1958, co-scripted by his university chum Frederic Raphael), THE VERY EDGE and THE IRON MAIDEN (both 1962), THREE HATS FOR LISA (1965), DOCTOR DOOLITTLE (1967), SCROOGE (1970), a segment of SUNDAY LOVERS (1980), BULLSEYE! (1990), as well as TV versions of Stop the World.... Bricusse was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989.

Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Original Music Score) 1967: DOCTOR DOLITTLE  Music Best Song 1967: DOCTOR DOLITTLE "Talk to the Animals" - Music & Lyric  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Score of a Musical Picture original or adaptation) 1969: GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Song Score) 1970: SCROOGE  Nominated for Music Best Song 1970: SCROOGE "Thank You Very Much" - Music & Lyric  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score) 1971: WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY  Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score) 1982: VICTOR/VICTORIA - Song Score  Nominated for Music Best Song 1986: THAT'S LIFE! "Life in a Looking Glass" - Lyric  Nominated for Best Achievement in Music (Original Song) 1990: HOME ALONE "Somewhere in My Memory" - Lyric  Nominated for Best Achievement in Music (Original Song) 1991: HOOK "When You're Alone" - Lyric 10 nominations, 2 Awards