Marilyn Bergman, the prolific lyricist who as half of a songwriting duo with her husband, wrote the words for dozens of widely interpreted songs, died Saturday. She was 93
,” a haunting cut from the rap group’s groundbreaking debut, “Enter the Wu-Tang .”
Norman Lear, the veteran TV writer and producer, tweeted, “There was only one Marilyn Bergman,” and said she “takes a bit of our hearts and souls with her today.” In the late ’70s, the Bergmans wrote “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” with Neil Diamond for Lear’s short-lived series “All That Glitters”; the song went on to top Billboard’s Hot 100 as a duet between Diamond and Streisand.
Marilyn studied music in high school and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English at New York University. After breaking her shoulder in a fall in 1956, she came to Los Angeles, where her parents had moved; eventually she landed a gig writing lyrics for composer Lew Spence, who introduced her to Alan Bergman, with whom Spence also wrote. The couple married in 1958, Alan having written “That Face” with Spence as an engagement present.
Marilyn Bergman, right, and Warren Beatty, left, look on as Barbra Streisand presents a crystal sculpture to Stephen Sondheim during Hollywood Bowl tribute to Sondheim in 2005.,” “Alice” and “Good Times,” but they didn’t view that work as less deserving of their imagination than music for the movies. “Lady Godiva was a freedom rider / She didn’t care if the whole world looked,” went “Maude’s” theme, memorably sung by Donny Hathaway.