Steve Lawrence

An enduring figure in popular music for over six decades, Steve Lawrence was a singer, producer and occasional actor whose work as a solo artist and with wife Eydie Gormé yielded five Top 20 hits, as well as Grammy and Emmy awards and the respect of his profession. Blessed with a warm voice and relaxed delivery, Lawrence enjoyed a string of pop hits between 1957 and 1962, and easily transitioned from recordings and live performances to television, where he was a staple of variety shows, including his own in 1965. As traditional pop was overtaken in the mid-1960s by rock-and-roll, Lawrence saw fewer chart hits but no decrease in demand for his live performances with Gormé, especially in Las Vegas. In the 1970s, he branched into television acting, but saw his greatest success in that medium as performer and producer of tribute specials to George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. The 1980s and 1990s saw Lawrence and Gormé still active on the concert scene and recording for their own label while repeating the awards afforded to performers of their stature and longevity. After 60 years in the music business, Lawrence remained one of its most consummately professional members, and a living link to the icons of the past like Frank Sinatra, to whom he paid tribute with a 2003 album of his standards.