Individual Details

American lyricist, musical comedy author, and theatrical producer influential in the development of musical comedy and known especially for his immensely successful collaboration with the composer Richard Rodgers.

The grandson of the opera impresario Oscar Hammerstein, he studied law at Columbia University before beginning his career in the theatre. Between 1920 and 1959 he wrote all or part of about 45 musical dramas for stage, film, or television. Until he became exclusively Rodgers’ librettist in 1943, Hammerstein wrote lyrics for several other composers, among them Vincent Youmans, Rudolf Friml, Sigmund Romberg (“Lover Come Back to Me”; “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise”), and Jerome Kern (“All the Things You Are”; “The Last Time I Saw Paris”). Among Hammerstein’s best known early works are Rose Marie (1924; music by Friml); The Desert Song (1925; music by Romberg); and the Jerome Kern musicals Sunny (1925) and Show Boat (1927), which includes the perennial favourites, “Ol’ Man River” and “Only Make Believe.”

Oscar Hammerstein died of stomach cancer on August 23, 1960, at his home Highland Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, aged 65, nine months after the opening of The Sound of Music on Broadway. The final song he wrote was "Edelweiss", which was added near the end of the second act during rehearsal. The lights of Times Square were turned off for one minute, and London's West End lights were dimmed in recognition of his contribution to the musical. He was cremated, and his ashes were buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. A memorial plaque was unveiled at Southwark Cathedral, England, on May 24, 1961

Birth	12 Jul 1895	New York City, New York
Marriage	1917	Living
Divorce	1929	Living
Death	23 Aug 1960	Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Spouse	Living
Child	William Hammerstein (1918 - 2001)