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\n\tSteve Lawrence<\/a>, the charismatic Grammy- and Emmy-winning crooner who delighted audiences for decades in nightclubs, on concert stages and in film and television appearances, died Thursday (March 7). He was 88.<\/p>\n \n\tLawrence died in Los Angeles of complications from Alzheimer\u2019s disease, publicist Susan DuBow announced. He partnered with the late Eydie Gorm\u00e9<\/a>, his wife of 55 years, in the very popular act Steve & Eydie<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tWith his boyish good looks, silky voice and breezy personality, Lawrence broke into show business when he won a talent competition on Arthur Godfrey\u2019s CBS show and signed with King Records as a teenager. The singer chose to stay old school and resist the allure of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt didn\u2019t attract me as much,\u201d Lawrence once\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cI grew up in a time period when music was written by Irving Berlin and Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart and Sammy Cahn and Julie Stein. Those people, I related to \u2014 what they were writing \u2014 because it was much more melodic.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLawrence\u2019s smooth stylings were heard on dozens of solo albums, starting in 1953 with an eponymous LP. In 1963, he topped the Billboard Hot 100<\/a> for two weeks with the Gerry Goffin-Carole King pop ballad \u201cGo Away Little Girl.\u201d The single became the first in history to reach No. 1 by two different artists, after Donny Osmond recorded his chart-topping version in 1971.<\/p>\n \n\tLawrence also made the top 10 with 1959\u2019s \u201cPretty Blue Eyes\u201d (No. 9), 1960\u2019s \u201cFootsteps\u201d (No. 7) and 1961\u2019s \u201cPortrait of My Love\u201d (No. 9).<\/p>\n \n\tOn Broadway, Lawrence starred as Sammy Glick in the long-running\u00a0What Makes Sammy Run?<\/em>, a musical adaptation of Budd Schulberg\u2019s novel, and received a best actor Tony nomination in 1964. A year later, he hosted a short-lived CBS variety program, and in the 1970s, he was a semi-regular on\u00a0The Carol Burnett Show<\/em>, appearing on more than 2 dozen episodes.<\/p>\n \n\tMany will remember Lawrence for his portrayal of manager Maury Sline in\u00a0The Blues Brothers\u00a0<\/em>(1980). When Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) need to quickly raise money to save their childhood orphanage, they turn to Maury to book a gig. Lawrence utters one of the film\u2019s most memorable lines when he hears how much they\u2019re looking for. \u201cFive-thousand dollars?\u201d he sputters. \u201cWho do you think you are, The Beatles?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe reprised the character in the 1998 sequel\u00a0Blues Brothers 2000<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tLawrence also played a pal of\u00a0Steve Martin<\/a>\u2018s greeting card writer in\u00a0The Lonely Guy\u00a0<\/em>(1984); was Morty Fine, the father of\u00a0Fran Drescher<\/a>\u2018s character on CBS\u2019\u00a0The Nanny<\/em>; and guest-starred on other series including\u00a0Night Gallery<\/em>,\u00a0Sanford and Son<\/em>,\u00a0Murder, She Wrote<\/em>,\u00a0Frasier<\/em>,\u00a0Hot in Cleveland<\/em> and\u00a0Two and a Half Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tAt the height of their popularity in the 1960s and \u201970s, Lawrence and Gorm\u00e9 were one of show business\u2019 hottest couples. If a variety show was on TV, it was only a matter of time before Steve & Eydie would be booked for it.<\/p>\n \n\tThey won an Emmy in 1979 for their NBC special\u00a0Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin<\/em> and\u00a0had fun on game shows, appearing on\u00a0What\u2019s My Line?<\/em>,\u00a0I\u2019ve Got a Secret\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Password All-Stars<\/em>, to name a few.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen they weren\u2019t shining on the small screen, they were wowing fans in concert and at top nightclubs throughout the country. They were a staple in Las Vegas, headlining Caesars Palace, the Sands, the Sahara and the Desert Inn, and the Las Vegas Entertainment Awards honored them four times as Musical Variety Act of the Year.<\/p>\n \n\tIn 1981, Lawrence realized a lifelong dream when he and his wife performed a series of sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey are both confident, full-throated singers who show the kind of assured stage presence that can come from years of playing to Las Vegas audiences,\u201d John S. Wilson\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0in his review for\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>. \u201cMr. Lawrence, like so many singers who work in that milieu, uses singing mannerisms that owe a great deal to\u00a0Frank Sinatra; Miss\u00a0Gorm\u00e9 has a smoky voice with a powerful projection that enables her to belt out torch songs with a figure that brings such legendary singers as Sophie Tucker up to date.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSteve Lawrence was born Sidney Liebowitz in Brooklyn on July 8, 1935. The son of a cantor, he grew up singing in synagogue choirs. Music was always a part of his life, but he didn\u2019t know what direction it would take him until the day he listened to his first Frank Sinatra record.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI must\u2019ve been 15 years old when I heard him. I think I knew [then] what I wanted to do with the rest of my musical life,\u201d he said. \u201cHis influence \u2014 not only on me, but everyone who came after him \u2014 was so indelible, so powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t(Lawrence would hang around with Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack, and later, Steve & Eydie opened for Ol\u2019 Blue Eyes on his Diamond Jubilee World Tour. For almost a year starting in 1990, they visited 13 countries for 41 sold-out performances that culminated with a concert at New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden.)<\/p>\n \n\tLawrence attended Thomas Jefferson High School, but books weren\u2019t a priority. He would skip classes to spend his days in Manhattan at the Brill Building, hustling to make connections and pick up some cash singing demos. It was at the songwriting mecca that he first met\u00a0Gorm\u00e9; he was entering the building as singer Bob Manning, an acquaintance, was leaving with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cBob said, \u2018I want you to meet Eydie\u00a0Gorm\u00e9,\u2019\u201d Lawrence\u00a0recalled<\/a>\u00a0in a 2014 interview with the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em>. \u201cShe had her hair in a ponytail, and her ponytail hit me in my face.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn 1953, they met again when they were each booked to sing on the Steve Allen-hosted\u00a0Tonight!<\/em>, a forerunner of\u00a0The Tonight Show<\/em>. They started doing duets and two years later collaborated on their first single together: \u201c(Close Your Eyes) Take a Deep Breath\u201d\/ \u201cBesame Mucho.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLawrence and Gorm\u00e9 were wed at the El Rancho Vegas hotel in December 1957. A few months later, they filled in for Allen with a summer replacement variety series that ran for eight weeks on NBC.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter he spent two years in the U.S. Army, they released three albums in 1960, including\u00a0Steve & Eydie We Got Us<\/em>, which won them a Grammy for best performance by a vocal group.<\/p>\n \n\tIn 1968, they headed to Broadway to star in the original musical\u00a0Golden Rainbow<\/em>, and that played for more than 380 performances. (Lawrence closed the first act by singing \u201cI\u2019ve Gotta Be Me,\u201d later made popular by Sammy Davis Jr.)<\/p>\n \n\tThough they each enjoyed success as a solo act, audiences seemed to prefer Steve & Eydie together. And they did so until Gorm\u00e9 died of an undisclosed illness in August 2013.\u00a0\u201cEydie has been my partner on stage and in life for more than 55 years,\u201d Lawrence\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0then. \u201cI fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing. While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA year after Gorm\u00e9\u2019s death, Lawrence released the solo album\u00a0When You Come Back to Me Again<\/em>. He had recorded it when she was ill and put it on hold when she died. When it came time to turn his attention back to music, Lawrence thought it only appropriate to dedicate the album to his wife and release it on Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cEydie heard that album, and she thought it was terrific,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cWe were attached at the hip \u2014 Steve-and-Eydie. It was like we were one person, to be married that long.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt was more than two years before Lawrence would return to the stage. On Valentine\u2019s Day in 2016, he performed a selection of Sinatra tunes at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert.<\/p>\n \n\tSurvivors include his son, David, a film and television composer whose credits include the\u00a0High School Musical\u00a0<\/em>films; daughter-in-law Faye; granddaughter Mabel; and brother Bernie. Another son, Michael, died of heart failure in 1986 at age 23.<\/p>\n \n\tDonations in his memory can be made to Alzheimer\u2019s Los Angeles\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tThis article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n