Steve Lawrence

Steve Lawrence (born Sidney Liebowitz; July 8, 1935 – March 7, 2024) was an American singer, comedian, and actor. He was best known as a member of the pop duo Steve and Eydie, with his wife Eydie Gormé. Lawrence also played the featured role of Maury Sline, the manager and friend of the main characters in the 1980 blockbuster film The Blues Brothers and its sequel. Lawrence and Gormé first appeared together as regulars on Tonight Starring Steve Allen in 1954 and continued performing as a duo until Gormé's retirement in 2009.

Lawrence was born on July 8, 1935, as Sidney Liebowitz to Jewish parents in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. His father, Max, was a cantor at the Brooklyn synagogue Beth Sholom Tomchei Harav, and his mother, Helen, was a homemaker. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School. During high school, Lawrence skipped school to spend time at the Brill Building in the hopes of being employed as a singer.

In 1952 at the age of 16, Lawrence signed a contract with King Records after winning a talent contest on Arthur Godfrey’s CBS TV show. The next year, talk show host Steve Allen hired Lawrence to be one of the singers on Allen's local New York City late night show on WNBC-TV, with vocalists Eydie Gormé and Andy Williams. The show was chosen by NBC to be seen on the national network, becoming The Tonight Show, and Lawrence, Gormé, and Williams stayed until the program's end in 1957. Lawrence credited the exposure and experience he gained on Allen's show for launching his career “I think Steve Allen was the biggest thing that happened to me. Every night I was called upon to do something different. In its own way, it was better than vaudeville.”

In the late 1950s, Lawrence was drafted into the U.S. Army and served as the official vocal soloist with the United States Army Band "Pershing's Own" in Washington, D.C.

Lawrence had success by means of the musical hit parades in the late 1950s and early 1960s with hits, including "Party Doll" (U.S. No. 5), "Pretty Blue Eyes" (U.S. No. 9), "Footsteps" (U.S. No. 7), "Portrait of My Love" (U.S. No. 9), and "Go Away Little Girl" (U.S. No. 1). "Go Away Little Girl" sold over 1 million copies and was awarded a Gold record. However, much of Lawrence's musical career was centered on nightclubs and the musical stage.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.