Legrand, Michel

(February 24, 1932, Paris, France-)

   The son of composer and bandleader Raymond Legrand (1908-1974), he entered the Paris Con­servatory at age eleven. Having graduated with a first prize for solfège the following year and a first prize for harmony at age seventeen, he started his professional career as an accompanist for famous French singers (Juliette Gréco, Henri Salvador, Cath­erine Sauvage, Maurice Chevalier, Zizi Jeanmaire). He soon began writing successful songs. In 1952, he had his first contact with cinema as an actor (1952 Son Dernier Noël, Jacques Daniel-Norman). From 1952 (Le Témoin de Minuit, co-composer with Raymond Legrand, Dimitri Kirsanoff) to 2008 (Disco, Fabien Onteniente), he scored more than 170 movies, in­cluding memorable Jacques Demy musicals (1964 Les Parapluies de Cherbourg / Die Regenschirme von Cherbourg / The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Jacques Demy, France / West Germany; 1967 Les Demoiselles de Ro-chefort / USA: The Young Girls of Rochefort; 1970 Peau d'Âne / UK: Once upon a Time / USA: Donkey Skin) and many excellent American productions (1968 Sweet November, Robert Ellis Miller; Ice Station Zebra, John Sturges, The Thomas Crown Affair, Norman Jewison; 1969 Castle Keep, Sydney Pollack; 1972 Potnoy's Com­plaint, Ernest Lehmann). He won three Oscars: one for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from the film The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968), the second for the score of The Summer of '42 (Rob­ert Mulligan, 1971), and the third for the song score of Yentl (Barbra Streisand, 1983).

 Filmography

1989 ◘ Cinq Jours en Juin