One of Hollywood’s most iconic lyricists, Alan Bergman — who, alongside his wife Marilyn, helped define the American songbook of the silver screen — has died at the age of 99.
Bergman passed away at his Los Angeles home on July 17 with his daughter, Julie, by his side, according to a family spokesperson. The cause was respiratory complications. “Alan was writing songs until the very end,” the spokesperson confirmed.
Bergman’s death marks the end of an era in American music — a man whose words became the emotional spine of some of cinema’s most unforgettable moments.
A Partnership That Made Music History
Together, Alan and Marilyn Bergman crafted timeless works like “The Way We Were,” “Papa, Can You Hear Me?”, and the TV theme “Good Times.” The couple won three Oscars, four Emmys, and two Grammys — and earned 15 Academy Award nominations, more than any other songwriting duo in history.
“He was poetry set to music,” said Barbra Streisand, a lifelong collaborator and close friend, in a statement. “Alan and Marilyn’s lyrics weren’t just words — they were emotion. They had a way of translating heartache, hope, and memory into something universal.”
From Brooklyn Beginnings to Hollywood Royalty
Born in 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, Alan Bergman once said his songwriting dream began as a boy sitting by the radio. “I was 6 when I started piano lessons. That’s what Jewish kids in Brooklyn did,” he recalled. “I’d sit and listen to the big bands and think, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to write those songs.’”
After earning his degree from the University of North Carolina, he started graduate work in music at UCLA but found himself pulled into live television. A stint directing baseball games and musical specials led him to songwriting legend Johnny Mercer, who told him bluntly: “You belong in L.A., writing songs.”
He took the advice — and fate took over. While working with composer Lew Spence, Alan met Marilyn, who was also a lyricist. Within six months, they’d written a song, turned down Broadway, and fallen in love.
“By the time we came back from New York, we were an item,” Alan recalled.
They married in 1958 and had one daughter, Julie, two years later.
Hits, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Gold
The Bergmans’ early years were humble — children’s songs, forgotten nightclub tunes, the occasional single. Then came “Yellow Bird,” their first real chart success. Collaborations with Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Quincy Jones soon followed.
But their breakout came in 1968 with “The Windmills of Your Mind” from The Thomas Crown Affair, composed with Michel Legrand. It won them their first Oscar — and set the tone for decades of film greatness.
Then, in 1973, lightning struck again.
“The Way We Were” was written for Streisand and Redford’s romance of the same name. Director Sydney Pollack wanted a song that could open and close the film — and feel different each time.
“That was a very interesting, challenging assignment,” Alan said in 2007. “To write a song that transforms with the story.”
They nailed it. The song won the Oscar and the Grammy for Song of the Year.
They followed that with the haunting score for Yentl, which earned another Oscar and two more song nominations.
“Yentl helped us connect with our Jewish identity,” Alan said in 2022. “But we still wrote it for the world.”
A Life of Accolades — and Intimacy
Though their lyrics often carried sorrow and nostalgia, Alan insisted the process was joyful. “There’s not much pain in songwriting. You toss ideas. You laugh. You stumble onto something true.”
They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1979. Streisand released a tribute album, What Matters Most, in 2011 composed entirely of Bergman songs. In 2013, the Recording Academy honored them with its Trustees Award.
Their work wasn’t limited to film. They also wrote theme songs for Maude, The Sandy Duncan Show, and Good Times. “That show was honest,” Alan said in 2023. “It wasn’t a sitcom version of Black life. It had truth. And truth always lasts.”
Alan kept writing even after Marilyn passed in 2022 at age 93. “We always wrote facing each other,” he said in one of his final interviews. “Now, I toss ideas back and forth in my own head.”
In 2007, he even released an album of his own vocals: Lyrically, Alan Bergman — his own tribute to a lifetime of storytelling.
Final Notes
Alan Bergman is survived by his daughter, Julie Bergman — a writer and producer — and his granddaughter, Emily Sender. A private burial will be held.
“He didn’t just write lyrics,” said music historian Linda Barron. “He wrote the soundtrack to America’s emotions.”
For those who lived through the golden age of Hollywood — and for those just discovering it — the Bergmans’ legacy remains.
As Alan once put it: “What you’re really trying to do is write the truth in a way people haven’t heard it before. That’s the whole game.”
And for nearly a century, he did just that.
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