Brooklyn Jewish Celebrities - STEVE LAWRENCE

Steve Lawrence (born Sidney Liebowitz; July 8, 1935) is an American singer and actor, best known as a member of a duo with his late wife Eydie Gormé, billed as “Steve and Eydie.” The two first appeared together as regulars on Tonight Starring Steve Allen in 1954 until Gormé’s retirement in 2009. She died August 10, 2013.

Steve Lawrence was born as Sidney Liebowitz in the Brooklyn borough of New York City to Jewish parents, Max, a cantor in the Bronx, and Helen. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School.

In 1951 he appeared on TV on the “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts” show and won first-prize.

In the late 1950s, Steve Lawrence was drafted into the United States Army and served as the official vocal soloist with t,he United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own,” in Washington, D.C.

Lawrence had success on the record charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s with such hits as “Go Away Little Girl” (U.S. #1), “Pretty Blue Eyes” (U.S. #9), “Footsteps” (U.S. #7), “Portrait of My Love” (U.S. #9), and “Party Doll” (U.S. #5). “Go Away, Little Girl” sold over one million copies and was awarded a Gold record. However, much of his musical career has centered on nightclubs and the musical stage. He is also an actor, appearing in guest roles on television shows in every decade since the 1950s, in shows such as The Danny Kaye Show, The Judy Garland Show, The Julie Andrews Hour, Night Gallery, The Flip Wilson Show, Police Story, Murder, She Wrote, Gilmore Girls, and CSI. His appearances on The Carol Burnett Show (1967-78), with and without wife Eydie, were especially ubiquitous. He served as a panelist on the original What’s My Line? (1950-67). In the fall of 1965, Lawrence was briefly the star of a variety show called “The Steve Lawrence Show,” one of the last television shows in black and white on CBS.

He and Gormé appeared together in the Broadway musical “Golden Rainbow,” which ran from February 1968 to January 1969. Although the show was not a huge success (a summary of this experience is chronicled in unflattering detail in William Goldman’s 1968 book, “The Season”), the show contained the memorable song, “I’ve Gotta Be Me.” This song was originally sung by Lawrence at the end of the first act of the musical; Sammy Davis, Jr. would later record a version of the song that became a Billboard Top 25 hit on its Hot 100 pop singles chart in 1969. Frank Sinatra was known to have repeatedly stated that the best male vocalist he had ever heard was Steve Lawrence, although he also repeatedly said the same of Matt Monro and Tony Bennett.

He starred as Gary McBride in the 1972 film “Stand Up and Be Counted,” opposite Jacqueline Bisset and Stella Stevens. In 1980, he was introduced to a new generation of fans with his portrayal of Maury Sline in “The Blues Brothers” and later reprised the role in the 1998 sequel, “Blues Brothers 2000.” His other films include the Steve Martin comedy, “The Lonely Guy” (1984) and the crime thriller “The Yards” (2000).

In 1984, he and comic Don Rickles hosted ABC’s “Foul-Ups, Bleeps & Blunders.”

In 1985, Steve and Eydie Gormé played Tweedledee (Gormé) and Tweedledum (Lawrence) in Irwin Allen’s film adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.”

He played Mark McCormick’s father, Sonny Daye, in two episodes of “Hardcastle and McCormick.” In 1999, he appeared as the much-talked about, but never really seen, Morty Fine, father of Fran Fine in a few of the final episodes of “The Nanny.” In 2011, he portrayed Jack, a wealthy love interest of Betty White’s character, Elka Ostrovsky, on “Hot in Cleveland.” In 2014, he guest-starred in an episode of “Two and a Half Men” on CBS, and sang the theme song to the parody miniseries, “The Spoils of Babylon.”

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Steve Lawrence among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.