Richard Morton Sherman (June 12, 1928 – May 25, 2024) was an American songwriter who specialized in musical films with his brother Robert B. Sherman. According to the official Walt Disney Company website and independent fact checkers, "The Sherman Brothers were responsible for more motion picture musical song scores than any other songwriting team in film history."
Some of the Sherman Brothers' best known songs were incorporated into live action and animation musical films including Mary Poppins, The Happiest Millionaire, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Snoopy Come Home, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Slipper and the Rose, and Charlotte's Web.
Their best known work is "It's a Small World", written for the theme park attraction of the same name. According to Time, it may be the most publicly performed song in history.
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Early life
Richard Morton Sherman was born on June 12, 1928, in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants, Rosa (Dancis) and Al Sherman. Sherman and his older brother Robert eventually followed in their songwriting father's footsteps to form a long-lasting songwriting partnership.
Following seven years of frequent cross-country moves, the Sherman family finally settled down in Beverly Hills, California in 1937. During Richard's years at Beverly Hills High School, he fell in love with music and studied piano, flute and piccolo. At his 1946 high school graduation, Sherman and classmate André Previn played a musical duet with Previn on piano and Sherman on flute. Coincidentally, both would go on to win Academy Awards for music in 1964, with Previn winning for Scoring of Music – Adaptation or Treatment for My Fair Lady, while the Sherman Brothers won for Music Score – Substantially Original for Mary Poppins, as well as a second for Best Original Song for "Chim Chim Cher-ee".
Army service and education
In 1953, Sherman was drafted into U.S. Army, being assigned to the Army Band and glee club. Serving as musical conductor for both groups from 1953 until his honorable discharge in 1955, he was stationed solely in the United States during his time in the service. During this time, his brother Robert worked with other songwriters.
As a student at Bard College, Sherman majored in music, writing numerous sonatas and "art songs".
Career
Within two years of graduating, Sherman and his brother Robert began writing songs together on a challenge from their father, Al Sherman, a successful popular songwriter in the "Tin Pan Alley" days ("No! No! A Thousand Times No!!", "You Gotta Be a Football Hero").
In 1958, Sherman's brother Robert founded the music publishing company, Music World Corporation, which later worked with Disney's BMI publishing arm, Wonderland Music Company. That same year, the Sherman Brothers had their first Top Ten hit with "Tall Paul", which was sung by Annette Funicello. The success of this song attracted the attention of Walt Disney who eventually hired the Sherman Brothers as Staff Songwriters for Walt Disney Studios. While at Disney, the Sherman Brothers wrote what is perhaps their most recognized song: "It's a Small World (After All)" for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Starting with this movie, and continuing through several subsequent Disney movies, the Sherman Brothers collaborated with noted arranger-conductor Irwin Kostal.
In 1965, the Sherman brothers won 2 Academy Awards for Mary Poppins – Best Original Score, which included "Feed The Birds", "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"; and Best Original Song, "Chim Chim Cher-ee". Since Mary Poppins' premiere, Robert B. Sherman subsequently earned 9 Academy Award nominations, 2 Grammy Awards, 4 Grammy Award nominations and 23 gold and platinum albums.
Robert and Richard Sherman worked directly for Walt Disney until Disney's death in 1966. After leaving the company, the brothers worked freelance as songwriters on scores of motion pictures, television shows, theme park exhibits and stage musicals.
Their first non-Disney assignment came with Albert R. Broccoli's motion picture production Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968 which garnered the brothers their third Academy Award Nomination. In 1973, the Sherman Brothers made history by becoming the only Americans ever to win First Prize at the Moscow Film Festival for Tom Sawyer for which they also authored the screenplay.
The Slipper and the Rose was picked to be the Royal Command Performance for 1976 and was attended by Queen Elizabeth. A modern musical adaptation of the classic Cinderella story, Slipper also features both song-score and screenplay by the Sherman Brothers. That same year the Sherman Brothers received their star on the Hollywood "Walk of Fame" directly across from Grauman's Chinese Theater.
Personal life
In the late 1940s, while Richard was attending Bard college, he was briefly married to Corrine Newman. They had one child, Lynda. In 1957, Richard married Ursula Elizabeth Gluck; the couple had two children, Gregory Vincent and Victoria Lynn. Sherman had six grandchildren.
Following Robert Sherman's relocation from Beverly Hills to London, England, the brothers continued to collaborate musically. They credited the ability to do so long-distance to technology via fax, e-mail, and the low-cost international telephone service. Both brothers frequently traveled between Los Angeles, New York, and London working together on various musical plays until Robert's death in 2012.
Although the brothers always continued collaborating on music, they often had major disputes and their families hardly knew one another. While attending public premieres, they and their families would sit on opposite sides of the theater and when their father died they held two separate shivas.
Richard and Elizabeth were married for over 67 years, until his death. They lived in Beverly Hills, California. He died of "age-related illness" at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, on May 25, 2024, at the age of 95, just 18 days before his 96th birthday. He was buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Achievements, honors, tributes
In 2000, the Sherman Brothers wrote the award-winning score to The Tigger Movie which achieved number one status in both theatrical box office and video sales.
The Sherman Brothers' classic motion picture, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was adapted into a London West End Musical in 2002 and premiered at the London Palladium on April 16, 2002, featuring many new songs and a reworked score by both Sherman Brothers. It was nominated for a 2003 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best New Musical. The Sherman Brothers each received the "Musical Theatre Award" from the Variety Club of Great Britain that year as well for Chitty. Chitty finished a record-breaking, three-and-a-half-year run at the Palladium, becoming the longest-running show in the theatre's century-long history. 2004 saw the premiere of Mary Poppins on the stage. In 2005, Poppins was nominated for nine Olivier Awards. In 2005 Chitty went to Broadway and was nominated for 9 Tonys and also began its nationwide (UK) tour.
On June 9, 2005, Sherman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Bill Withers, Steve Cropper, John Fogerty, Isaac Hayes, David Porter and his brother, Robert B. Sherman.
On November 16, 2006, the Cameron Mackintosh/Disney production of Mary Poppins made its Broadway premiere at the New Amsterdam Theater featuring the Sherman Brothers' classic songs.
During a London press junket promoting the 40th anniversary DVD rerelease of The Jungle Book, Robert and Richard Sherman were witnessed by press working on a new song for Inkas in the same Brown's Hotel room where The Jungle Book was originally penned by the British writer, Rudyard Kipling, over a hundred years earlier.
In February 2008 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang began a second UK tour. In 2008 and 2009, Poppins premiered in numerous cities throughout the world including: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Budapest, Toronto, Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Helsinki. Full UK and US tours of Poppins are also scheduled to commence in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
List of works
Motion picture screenplays
Mary Poppins, 1964 (*treatment only)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1973
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1974
The Slipper and the Rose, 1976
The Magic of Lassie, 1978
Stage musicals
Victory Canteen, 1971 (Ivar Theatre, Los Angeles)
Over Here!, 1974 (Broadway, New York City)
Busker Alley, 1995 (U.S. tour)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, 2002 (London)
Mary Poppins, 2004 (London)
On the Record, 2004–5 (U.S. tour)
A Spoonful of Sherman, 2014 (London)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 2021 (U.K. tour)
Theme park songs
"There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" for Carousel of Progress
"The Best Time of Your Life" for Carousel of Progress
"Miracles from Molecules" for Adventure Thru Inner Space
"One Little Spark" for Journey into Imagination
"Magic Journeys" for Magic Journeys
"It's a Small World (After All)" for the 1964 New York World's Fair attraction
"The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" for Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room
"We Meet the World with Love" and "Meet the World" for the same exhibit in Tokyo Disneyland
Professional awards
1976 A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame awarded to "Richard & Robert Sherman" on November 17, 1976, located at 6914 Hollywood Blvd.
1985 "Mousecar" awarded at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California in front of 20 thousand people.
1990 "Disney Legends" awarded at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
2005 inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the Marriott Hotel on Times Square in New York City.
2008 National Medal of Arts awarded to Richard and Robert Sherman on November 17, 2008, at the White House by President George W. Bush. This is the highest honor the United States Government bestows on artists.
2010 Main Street, U.S.A. Window presented at Disneyland in Anaheim, California in honor of the Sherman Brothers' contribution to Disney theme parks.