Posted on 05/22/2011 2:48:19 PM PDT by doug from upland
Broadway Flop IN MY LIFE's Oscar-winning Composer Brooks Commits Suicide
Sunday, May 22, 2011; Posted: 02:05 PM - by BWW News Desk
Oscar-winning songwriter Joseph Brooks, famous for writing "You Light Up My Life," who has been awaiting trial on sex assault charges for two rapes, a sodomy case and two sexual assaults has committed suicide, reports the Associated Press.
The wire service reports that he was found in his Manhattan apartment and that "Police say Brooks was found Sunday with a plastic dry-cleaning bag around his head and a towel wrapped around his neck. There also was a helium tank with a hose attached. An autopsy will determine the cause of death. Police say a suicide note was found but they didn't reveal its contents."
Brooks, 71, allegedly seduced the women through Craigslist web postings and lured them to his upper East Side apartment with with promises of parts in his next movie. He purportedly boasted about his Oscar and offered to show it to them at his pad.
Brooks was the man behind the 2005 Broadway musical IN MY LIFE. The original book musical flopped, running 23 previews and 61 regular performances. In addition to writing the music, lyrics and book for IN MY LIFE, Brooks also directed the Broadway production. IN MY LIFE told how "a musician with Tourette's syndrome and a journalist with obsessive compulsive disorder meet cute at a grocery store-with some help from above- and begin an unlikely romance that proves that life's greatest affliction is the one they share-true love," as production notes described the show.
Brooks' "You Light Up My Life" is the most successful single record in the history of recorded music, selling more than seven million copies and staying at number one in the county for more than three months; total record sales of albums and singles of the song exceed 15 million. It received the Academy Award for Best Song when it was featured in the film of the same name (also written, produced and directed by Brooks), as well as winning the Grammy, Golden Globe, American Music, and People's Choice awards. In addition, Brooks has garnered numerous platinum and gold albums and singles, 21 Clio Awards (advertising's highest honor), the Golden Palm Award given at The Cannes Film Festival; 75 other advertising awards (he is a preeminent composer/lyricist and producer in the industry), and multiple ASCAP awards for pop and country music. Having conducted the New York Philharmonic, The London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras, Brooks also composed the music and co-wrote the lyrics for Metropolis: The Musical, which was staged at London's Picadilly Theatre.
Oh, Dougie, that’s cruel.
For everyone else, here is Debbie Boone singing one of my all time favorites, You Light Up My Life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b07-yKnKRMQ
I really liked that song about the first 100 times I heard it but then the 2nd week came by and it got old real fast. Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” is another that burned through quick and who can ever forget “We Are The World” which got old in about 2 days.
Because you don’t like it? I always wonder why people say such nasty things.
+1
Well......you have to give him some credit. He did save the taxpayers a load of $$ in not having trials for all his transgressions.
So he was the person the Charlie Sheen character was based on.
Escuse me, I said such a thing because I was born with the humor gene.
Tank of helium? Wonder if he floated.
LOL!
You are not alone, my friend.
When I nominated this song for the best ballad ever written, most of the men voted YECH!!
Of course, most women love it, naturally.
Despise it.
Sounds like another pervert took the self-inflicted dirt nap instead of going to trial on a bunch of sex charges.Saved the state a bunch of money on court costs.
Met Debbie and her Dad at a concert. One of my Sister’s good friends was a backup singer. Although I’m not into that kinda music at all, it was a great concert. And Deb and her Dad are very nice people. I reminded Pat of a flip side of one of his earliest recordings. He enjoyed that!
“Everyone’s gonna have Religion and Glory
Everyones gonna be singin’ that story
etc..”
Nice people!
Not to wxcuse his behavior but At 71, he must have been suffering from dementia.
Oh, okay. I enjoyed it at first. But there is such a thing as being overexposed. It got a little tiring.
HOT BLOODED and UNDER MY THUMB, on the other hand, never got tiring. :)
This is GREAT news!
Too bad he didn’t do this a couple of years before he raped those women.
Ebony and Ivory is one of my all time favorites....
Brooks didn't write THAT one did he?
He did have quite a line - hey, sweetie, wanna see my Oscar? I’ll let you touch it.
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