Richard M Sherman

MAIN

Recommend (0)

•

Comments (0)

BIRTHDAY

June 12, 1928

New York City, New York, USA

RECENT CREDITS

The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Sto... (FILM) May. 22, 2009

War of the Worlds (FILM) Jun. 29, 2005

Bewitched (FILM) Jun. 24, 2005

Pooh's Heffalump Movie (FILM) Feb. 11, 2005

Around the World in 80 Days (FILM) Jun. 16, 2004

View all Richard M Sherman Credits

BIOGRAPHY

Expand Full Bio

With his older brother Robert B Sherman, this songwriter has been responsible for numerous well-loved scores to Walt Disney films from the 1960s and early 70s. Sherman began working with his brother and the pair had an early hit with a song written for Kitty Wells. After military service in Korea, he and his sibling wrote "Tall Paul" which was successfully recorded by Annette Funicello in 1958. Shortly thereafter, the Sherman brothers began their more than ten year association with Disney and his films. Their first efforts were included in 1961's "The Absent-Minded Professor" and "The Parent Trap", but the brothers really did not come into their own until "The Sword and the Stone" (1963), an animated telling of the Arthurian legend. The following year, they had their biggest success with the lively and infectious score to "Mary Poppins", for which they shared Oscars for Best Score and Best Song ("Chim Chim Cheree"). Drawing on English music hall traditions, the Shermans composed several hummable melodies and with "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", one of the more memorable song titles. While their remaining work for Disney was prolific, most of their subsequent films did not have the cache of "Mary Poppins". Their last, and underrated, effort was the Angela Lansbury vehicle "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" in 1971.

During the 60s, Sherman and his brother had one non-Disney success with the title song to the uneven "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1968), produced by United Artists. In 1973, the siblings returned to the studio to co-script and score musical adaptations of Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" (1973) and "Huckleberry Finn" (1974). Also in 1974, the Shermans made their Broadway debut with "Over Here!", a WWII-era musical that was helped by the presence of Patty and Maxine Andrews. One of their better post-Disney efforts was the lovely, lushly romantic score for "The Slipper and the Rose" (1976), which was a retelling of the Cinderella story. More recently, the pair provided the songs to the animated "Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland" (1990) and "The Mighty Kong" (lensed 1994-96).

Collapse Full Bio