Broadway's Cy Coleman Dead At 75

Broadway composer and jazz pianist Cy Coleman died of an apparent heart attack last night (Nov. 18) in Manhattan. He was 75.

Coleman is best known for composing Broadway standards like "Witchcraft," "Big Spender" and "The Best Is Yet to Come." The composer of genres ranging from country to R&B to noir received best score Tony Awards for 1978's "On the Twentieth Century," 1990's "City of Angels" and 1991's "Will Rogers Follies." Coleman also picked up an Academy Award nomination for the 1969 screen adaptation of Broadway's "Sweet Charity" starring Shirley MacLaine.

Coleman began his music career as a jazz pianist and recording artist before teaming with lyricist Joseph A. McCarthy to write "Why Try to Change Me Now," recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1952. He began to focus on composing when his collaboration with Carolyn Leigh, "Witchcraft," became a hit for Sinatra in 1958.

During his career, Coleman also collaborated with Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

His many honors include an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame -? which presented him with the Johnny Mercer Lifetime Achievement Award ?- and the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award.

He is survived by his wife and daughter.