One of the last greats of Broadway’s Golden Age, and celebrated lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof, Sheldon Harnick died Friday in NYC at the age of 99.
Born in Chicago in 1924, Harnick earned a Bachelor of Music Degree at Northwestern University, following his service in World War II. After working as a professional musician in and around Chicago, he moved to New York in 1950 to pursue a career in musical theater which continued for 60 years. Harnick met composer Jerry Bock through a mutual friend and together they collaborated on some of Broadway’s most beloved musicals, including Fiddler and She Loves Me. “Part of my talent, as a lyricist,” Harnick told NPR in 2014, “is that I believe I think like a playwright, in terms of character, so that I can find different diction, different voices for the different characters.”
In his long and legendary career, Mr. Harnick has won a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, two New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, three gold records and a platinum record. In 2016, he received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, the Drama League Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre and a Special Lifetime Achievement Award from The Outer Critics Circle.
Harnick is survived by his wife—photographer Margery Gray, with whom he collaborated on two picture books, “The Outdoor Museum (Not Your Usual Images of New York”, and “KOI: A Modern Folktale” which features her photographs and his poetry—as well as their two children, Beth and Matthew and two grandchildren.
Cover photo by Maryann Lopinto
