Biography
Born in New York City on December 20, 1907, Paul Francis Webster earned Academy Awards for penning the lyrics to enduring film themes including “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,” “The Shadow of Your Smile,” and “Somewhere My Love (Lara’s Theme).” After leaving NYU without a degree, he shipped out to Asia aboard a merchant vessel; once back on American soil he taught ballroom steps at an Arthur Murray studio. His first chart success arrived in 1932 when he joined composer John Jacob Loeb on “Masquerade,” and further early pairings followed with William Scotti on “My Moonlight Madonna” and Lew Pollack on “Two Cigarettes in the Dark.”
Webster received his initial screen assignment in 1935 for the Shirley Temple picture Our Little Girl. While based in Hollywood he also contributed to Duke Ellington’s all-Black revue Jump for Joy, which opened in 1941 at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles with Ivie Anderson and Dorothy Dandridge among its performers. Additional work with Ted Fio Rito produced “Lily of Laguna,” after which he began a fruitful songwriting alliance with Hoagy Carmichael that generated “Baltimore Oriole,” “Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief,” and “Memphis in June.”
The first of Webster’s Oscars came in 1953 for “Secret Love,” composed with Sammy Fain for Calamity Jane. The same team later supplied material for Lucky Me (“I Speak to the Stars”), Marjorie Morningstar (“A Very Precious Love”), and April Love (its title song). Their most celebrated effort, the main theme for the 1955 release Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, secured Webster a second Academy Award. Another key partnership linked him with Dimitri Tiomkin on the scores for Rio Bravo, The Alamo, and The Guns of Navarone. In 1965 he teamed with Johnny Mandel for the Oscar-winning “The Shadow of Your Smile” from The Sandpiper and simultaneously worked with Maurice Jarre on Dr. Zhivago’s “Somewhere My Love (Lara’s Theme).”
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972, Webster died in Beverly Hills on March 18, 1984.
Webster received his initial screen assignment in 1935 for the Shirley Temple picture Our Little Girl. While based in Hollywood he also contributed to Duke Ellington’s all-Black revue Jump for Joy, which opened in 1941 at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles with Ivie Anderson and Dorothy Dandridge among its performers. Additional work with Ted Fio Rito produced “Lily of Laguna,” after which he began a fruitful songwriting alliance with Hoagy Carmichael that generated “Baltimore Oriole,” “Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief,” and “Memphis in June.”
The first of Webster’s Oscars came in 1953 for “Secret Love,” composed with Sammy Fain for Calamity Jane. The same team later supplied material for Lucky Me (“I Speak to the Stars”), Marjorie Morningstar (“A Very Precious Love”), and April Love (its title song). Their most celebrated effort, the main theme for the 1955 release Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, secured Webster a second Academy Award. Another key partnership linked him with Dimitri Tiomkin on the scores for Rio Bravo, The Alamo, and The Guns of Navarone. In 1965 he teamed with Johnny Mandel for the Oscar-winning “The Shadow of Your Smile” from The Sandpiper and simultaneously worked with Maurice Jarre on Dr. Zhivago’s “Somewhere My Love (Lara’s Theme).”
Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972, Webster died in Beverly Hills on March 18, 1984.