Biography for
George Gershwin More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

26 September 1898, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

11 July 1937, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (brain tumor)

Birth Name

Jacob Gershowitz

Height

5' 10½" (1.79 m)

Mini Biography

He was born Jacob Gershowitz, 26 September 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a boy he could play popular and classical works on his brother Ira's piano by ear. In 1913 he quit school to study music and began composing for Tin Pan Alley; by 1919 he had his first hit "Swanee" and his first Broadway show "La, La, Lucille." In less than three weeks in 1924 he composed "Rhapsody in Blue," originally for Paul Whiteman's relatively small swing band and later orchestrated by Ferde Grofé. "Concerto in F" followed the next year, and his musical success "Oh, Kay!" (which included "Someone to Watch Over Me") the year after that. Success continued: "Funny Face" (1927), the tone poem "American in Paris" (1928), "Girl Crazy" (1929), "Of Thee I Sing" (1931 the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize), and the first true American opera: "Porgy and Bess" (1935). He moved to Hollywood were his songs were performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. In 1937 he fell in love with Paulette Goddard, then married to Charlie Chaplin. He was heartbroken that she would not leave her husband for him. When he fell ill, that June, it was written off as stress. A month later he died of a brain tumor, five hours after a failed surgical attempt to remove it. Funerals were hold in both Hollywood and New York.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan

Trivia

Brother of lyricist Ira Gershwin.

Pictured on an 8¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the American Arts series, issued 28 February 1973.

His "Porgy and Bess" was the first American opera ever performed at La Scala Opera House, in Milan, Italy.

His "Rhapsody in Blue" was hugely successful at its premiere, coming at the end of a reportedly extremely dull concert.

He was the first composer to successfully use jazz elements in works written for the concert hall.

His "Porgy and Bess" was the first nearly all-black opera to be performed in the Soviet Union.

His "Porgy and Bess", is still, as of 2003, the most beloved American opera ever written, and the most famous, despite what dissenting critics have said about it over the years.

The first two truly complete recordings of Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess" won back-to-back Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording--in 1976 (for Decca/London's studio recording conducted by Lorin Maazel) and in 1977 (for RCA Victor's recording of the critically acclaimed and highly successful Houston Opera stage production, in which the opera was restored to completeness after playing onstage in a slightly abridged version). The 1989 complete recording, however, often praised as the best so far, did not win a Grammy.

He is considered by some to be the greatest American composer of the twentieth century.

Although Gershwin completed only four songs for his score for the film The Goldwyn Follies (1938) at the time of his premature death, three of them are considered among his best, "Love Walked In," "Love Is Here to Stay," and "I Was Doing Alright". Vernon Duke completed the songs for the film, which was neither a critical or popular success.

His satirical musical, "Of Thee I Sing", which lampooned the U.S. Presidency, the Vice Presidency, and the entire impeachment process, was never filmed by Hollywood because it was considered too much of a political hot potato. It was, however, produced as a television special in a very toned-down and altered version, in 1972.

Some of his stage musicals, such as "Oh, Kay!" and "Tip-Toes", were made into silent pictures (Oh Kay! (1928), Tiptoes (1927)), but never re-made in the sound era. "Tip-Toes" was staged on television as a Christmas season episode of the British anthology "The Jazz Age" (1968) in 1968.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Portrayed by Robert Alda in the somewhat fictionalized biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945).

Was allergic to champagne.

George and Ira Gershwin were awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7083 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

George Gershwin won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical "Of Thee I Sing" collaborating with George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin.

Personal Quotes

Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want?

Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise.

True music must repeat the thoughts and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.

[after completing "Porgy and Bess"] I think the music is so marvelous, I don't believe I wrote it.

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