Rupert Holmes

Rupert Holmes (born David Goldstein; February 24, 1947) is a British-born American dramatist and author, and formerly a composer, singer-songwriter and music producer. He is widely known for the hit singles "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and "Him" (1980). He is also known for his musicals The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which earned him two Tony Awards, and Curtains, his television series Remember WENN, and his novel Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide.

Holmes was born David Goldstein in Northwich, Cheshire, England. His father, Leonard Eliot Goldstein, was a United States Army warrant officer and bandleader. His mother, Gwendolen Mary (née Pynn), was English, and both were musical. Holmes has dual British and American citizenship. The family moved when Holmes was six years old to the northern New York City suburb of Nanuet, New York, where Holmes grew up and attended nearby Nyack High School and then the Manhattan School of Music (majoring in clarinet). Holmes's brother, Richard, a principal lyric baritone with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, has sung roles with regional opera companies, such as Glimmerglass, Lake George and Virginia Opera, and has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1969, Holmes married childhood friend Elizabeth "Liza" Wood Dreifuss, an attorney. Their daughter Wendy died suddenly in 1986, at the age of ten, of an undiagnosed brain tumor. They have two sons: Nick, a filmmaker, and Timothy, who is autistic. In 2009, they moved from Scarsdale, New York, where they had lived since Wendy's death, to Cold Spring, New York.

In his 20s, Holmes was a session musician (producing sessions, writing and arranging songs, singing and playing a few instruments). In 1969, Holmes and Ron Dante of the Cuff Links (and the Archies) recorded "Jennifer Tomkins" for release on their second album, The Cuff Links. During the recording of that album, Dante was prohibited by the studio that produced the Archies from any involvement in new recording ventures and was forced to drop out of the Cuff Links. Holmes finished the project and released "Jennifer Tomkins" separately under a different studio name, Street People (not related to the mid-1970s band the Street People). The song was on the Billboard Hot 100 for 15 weeks, beginning January 3, 1970, reaching a peak of number 36. In Canada the song reached number 21. A follow-up single called "Thank You Girl" reached number 96 on the Billboard pop charts in April 1970.

Holmes played the piano for both the Cuff Links and the Buoys, with whom he had his first international hit, "Timothy", which was on the Hot 100 for 17 weeks beginning on January 2, 1971, a number 17 song about human cannibalism that intentionally drew controversy. He also wrote "Give Up Your Guns" (which peaked at number 84), "The Prince of Thieves", "Blood Knot", and "Tomorrow" for the band. Holmes also wrote jingles and pop tunes (including for Gene Pitney, the Platters, the Drifters, Wayne Newton, Dolly Parton, Barry Manilow and television's the Partridge Family), as well as the score of the 1970 revenge western Five Savage Men (also known as The Animals), which starred Keenan Wynn.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.