Marvin Laird, a prolific Broadway, film and TV composer, conductor and musical director who lent his talents to projects featuring such stars as Bernadette Peters, Joel Grey, Diana Ross, Cass Elliot, Dusty Springfield, Goldie Hawn, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and Robert DeNiro, died Monday, December 2, of natural causes in Redding, Conn., where he resided. He was 85.
“My beloved Marvin had impeccable style, a delicious sense of humor, and his generous spirit made everyone he worked with fall in love with him,” said Peters in a statement to Deadline. “I was a major beneficiary of Marvin’s genius and generosity of support and love.”
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From Broadway, where he wrote dance arrangements for Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1966, conducted Gypsy in 2003 with Peters in the starring role, and played keyboards for the 2017 Hello, Dolly! revival starring Midler, to television (composer for Dynasty, Quincy, M.E., and A Different Approach, among others), Laird was a busy musical collaborator from the 1960s through 2020, when he served as arranger, orchestrator, conductor and musical director for the TV special Bernadette Peters: A Special Concert.
Among his other Broadway credits are Annie Get Your Gun and Follies, and he conducted concerts for Peters, Grey, Ross, Elliot, Springfield and Hawn. He also wrote dance music for the films Hello, Dolly!, starring Streisand, and New York, New York, starring Minnelli and DeNiro. He composed the score for Ruthless! The Musical, the 1992 award-winning Off Broadway musical which continues to find new audiences nationally and internationally.
Born on October 26, 1939 in Kansas City, Kansas, Laird is survived by Joel Paley, his longtime partner in marriage and music; his brother and sister-in-law Larry Lee and Jeanne Laird; and nieces Lana Whittaker and Lynnette Norcross
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