Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand was a French composer, arranger, conductor and jazz pianist.

From 1942 to 1949, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, before becoming an in-demand arranger, working for French stars like Edith Piaf and Yves Montand.

Among his better-known compositions are “The Windmills of Your Mind” from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), which won the Oscar for best song; “The Summer Knows,” the theme from Summer of ’42 (1971) (Legrand won an Oscar for the movie’s score); and the Oscar-nominated “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” from the film The Happy Ending (1969). All three were written with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

Along with his three Oscars, Legrand won a BAFTA, a Golden Globe award, five Grammy Awards, received two Emmy nominations, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990.

In 2010, he celebrated 50 years in show business with a star-studded tribute at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Legrand died January 26, 2019, in Paris, France. He was 86.