Leslie Bricusse was born in London on January 29, 1931. After graduating from college he enters the University of Cambridge. Along with his studies he organizes together with his friends “The Musical Comedy Club”; he also becomes a president of the theater club “Footlights”: there he was a director, actor, composer and script writer. His first musical shows that later on were put on stage in the London West-End first saw the light in the “Footlights”. Bricusse’s name becomes wide known in the theater circles. Soon he receives the Master of Arts degree. Then he decides to leave the profession of an actor and director and dedicate himself to writing scripts and composing music.
Bricusse mostly wrote scripts for films and musicals, but he also composed music for his own lyrics. He is the author of more than 40 musicals and film scripts. In 1963 his song for the TV film “Stop the World – I want to Get Off” received the Grammy Award as the song of the year; he is the author of the lyrics for the songs from the famous James Bond films (“Goldfinger”, 1964 and “You only live twice”, 1967). Bricusse wrote the script, lyrics and music for the film “Dr. Doolittle” (Oscar for the best song, 1967). His next Oscar is for the best music: the film “Scrooge”, 1970. He wrote the lyrics for the movie “Home Alone” (1992) which is quite famous in Russia, as well as for the films “Peter Pan” (1976), “Victor and Victoria” (1992), “Casino” (1995) and other films.
Leslie Bricusse is the fourth Englishman after Noël Coward, John Lennon and Paul McCartney who was included in 1989 into the American Hall of Fame as the author of the songs. Bricusse became worldly famous participating in such projects as “Victor and Victoria” and “Jekyll and Hyde”.