Oscar-winning French Composer Michel Legrand Dies At 86

Michel Legrand passes away at the age of 86

Oscar-winning French composer Michel Legrand dies at the age of 86 last Saturday, January 26.

In 1969, he won his first Academy Award for the song The Windmills of Your Mind from the film The Thomas Crown Affair.

Legrand grew up in a family of musicians. His father was a composer and a conductor. At the age of 10, he entered the Paris Conservatory of music.

Michel Legrand
Photo source:SBS

“The world of childhood, mine, was a lonely world, I did not like going to school, I did not like the world of children and adults, I hated to hear ‘eat your soup, go bed’. For me, who hated life, when I first came to the Conservatory I crossed the threshold into a magical world where the only question was music,” Michel Legrand once said.

His career as a composer of music for films started the 1960s. He was behind the scores of “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”) in 1964 and “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort” (“The Young Ladies of Rochefort”) in 1967 which both received Academy Awards nomination.

Later on, he moved to the US. “It was a real risk to leave France, landing in Hollywood without real commitment,” he wrote in his 2013 autobiography, describing this step as “part of Russian roulette”,” he said.

He was recognized by Oscars Awards three times while in Grammys five times within his almost half a century career.

Based on Manila Bulletin’s report, Michel Legrand died on Saturday with his wife, actress Macha Meril. His spokesperson confirmed this report to AFP (Agence-France Presse)

Legrand is a father of three and he got married to Meril in 2014.

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