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Film score composer Marvin Hamlisch dies

Prolific composer Marvin Hamlisch, who wrote and adapted dozens of musical scores for movies and television shows, has died in California.

Hamlisch was the creative force behind more than 40 film scores and arranged the music for the 1973 film, The Sting.

The New York City-born composer, who was working until days before his death, earned the rare distinction of winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.

A family spokesman confirmed he had died at the age of 68 after a brief illness.

Barbra Streisand, who had been a friend of Hamlisch's for 45 years, said she was devastated at his death and recalled how he had played at her 1998 wedding.

"When I think of him now, it was his brilliantly quick mind, his generosity and delicious sense of humour that made him a delight to be around," she said.

"He was a true musical genius but above all that, he was a beautiful human being. I will truly miss him."

Singer and actress Liza Minnelli said she had been friends with Hamlisch since the age of 13 and recalled he arranged her first and second albums.

"I have lost my first lifelong best friend, and sadly we have lost a splendid, splendid talent," she said.

Former US first lady Nancy Reagan recalled Hamlisch as a frequent entertainer at White House parties in the 1980s, and said he wrote a 77th birthday song for her late husband, former US president Ronald Reagan.

Hamlisch was "a dear friend and I am truly stunned by his death at such a young age... I don't think you could ever find a more contemporary and talented musician," she said.

Hamlisch, raised by Jewish parents and showing an early ability to mimic music as a young child, started out his professional career as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl, beginning a long history of working with Streisand.

Starting with 1969 film The Swimmer, Hamlisch scored films for the next several decades, including Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run and Bananas, Save the Tiger, Ice Castles, right up to Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! in 2009.

He had recently been writing the score for a new Soderbergh movie based on the life of the pianist Liberace.

On Broadway, he won a Tony award and a Pulitzer Prize for the 1975 musical A Chorus Line, which at the time became the most successful show on the Great White Way.

He also wrote the scores for musicals They're Playing Our Song, The Goodbye Girl and Sweet Smell Of Success.

He also won four Grammy Awards including two for The Way We Were.

At the time of his death, he was principal pops conductor for several US symphony orchestras and was scheduled to conduct the New York Philharmonic in this year's New Year's Eve concert.

He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Terre.

ABC/Reuters