Howard Ashman

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Howard Ashman (May 17, 1950 - March 14, 1991) was a Jewish American playwright and movie music lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College (with a stop at Tufts University's Summer Theater) and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974. He collaborated with Alan Menken on several films, notably animated features for Disney, Ashman writing the lyrics and Menken composing the scores.

Ashman, born Howard Elliott Ashman in Baltimore, Maryland was the artistic director of the WPA Theater in New York. His play, the Confirmation was produced in 1979 at Princeton's McCarter Theater and starred Herschl Bernardi. He first worked with Alan Menken on a 1979 musical adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. They also collaborated on Little Shop of Horrors with Ashman as director, lyricist, and librettist.

Ashman was director, lyricist and bookwriter for the 1986 Broadway musical, Smile (music by Marvin Hamlisch). Along with Menken, Ashman was the co-recipient of two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and two Oscars. His second Academy Award in 1992 was awarded posthumously for Best Song and was accepted by his partner, Bill Lauch.

He succumbed to complications from AIDS at the age of 40 in New York, during the making of both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. The song Proud of Your Boy from Aladdin was cut from the movie after the mother was taken out of the story. Ashman and Menken had finished the songs for Beauty and the Beast, but Tim Rice was brought in to finish the Aladdin songs with Menken.

He was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 2001. Beauty and the Beast was dedicated to him, "To our Friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman 1950-1991"

His interment was located at Oheb Shalom Memorial Park in Baltimore next to its synagogue.

[edit] Best known works

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979) (lyricist and librettist)
Little Shop of Horrors (1982) (lyricist, librettist and director)
Smile (lyricist and writer)
Oliver & Company (1988) (lyricist for "Once Upon A Time In New York City")
The Little Mermaid (1989) (lyricist) (co-producer)
"Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" (1990) (lyricist for "Wonderful Way To Say No")
Beauty and the Beast (1991) (lyricist) (executive producer) (dedicatee)
Aladdin (1992) (lyricist)