Tim Rice

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Tim Rice
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Born November 10, 1944 (age 79)
Origin Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
Genres Film Score, Musical theatre
Occupations Lyricist
Instruments Piano, Synthesizer
Years active 1965–present
Website timrice.co.uk

Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice (born 10 November 1944) is a British lyricist and author. An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and additional songs for the 2011 West End revival of The Wizard of Oz, and for his work for Walt Disney Studios with Alan Menken (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, King David), Elton John (The Lion King, Aida) and Ennio Morricone.

Early life

Rice was born at Shardeloes, an historic English country house near Amersham, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom that was requisitioned as a maternity hospital during World War II. His father, Hugh Gordon Rice, served with the Eighth Army and reached the rank of major during World War II, whilst his mother, Joan Odette (née Bawden), served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a photographic interpreter.[1][2] After the war, they worked for the de Havilland aircraft company.

Rice lived in Croxley Green, Radlett and Hatfield, Hertfordshire as a child.

Education

Rice was educated at three independent schools: at Aldwickbury School, on the outskirts of Harpenden in Hertfordshire, followed by St Albans School in the city of St Albans (also in Hertfordshire) and Lancing College, near the town of Lancing in West Sussex, on the south coast of England. He left Lancing with GCE A-Levels in History and French and then started work as an articled clerk for a law firm in London, having decided not to apply for a university place.[3] He later attended Sorbonne University in Paris for a year.

Career

After studying for a year in Paris at the Sorbonne, Rice joined EMI Records as a management trainee on 6 June 1966. When EMI producer Norrie Paramor left to set up his own organisation in 1968, Rice joined him as an assistant producer, working with, among others, Cliff Richard. Rice has collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cricket, and The Likes of Us. For The Walt Disney Company, Rice has collaborated individually with Alan Menken and Elton John, creating productions including Aladdin (winning an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Grammy Award for Song of the Year for the song "A Whole New World") and The Lion King (winning the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"). In 1996, his collaboration with Lloyd Webber for the film version Evita won Rice his third Academy Award for Best Original Song with the song "You Must Love Me". Rice has also collaborated with Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA on Chess and with Rick Wakeman on the concept albums 1984 and Cost of Living.

Along with his brother Jo and radio presenters Mike Read and Paul Gambaccini, he was a co-founder of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and served as an editor from 1977 to 1996. He has also been a frequent guest panelist for many years on the radio panel games Just a Minute and Trivia Test Match. Rice often jokes that he is most recognised in America for his appearance in the film About a Boy. The film includes several clips from a (real) edition of the game show Countdown on which he was the guest adjudicator. His other interests include cricket (he was President of the MCC in 2002) and maths. He wrote the foreword to the book Why Do Buses Come In Threes by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham, and featured prominently in Tony Hawks's One Hit Wonderland, where he co-wrote the song which gave Hawks a top twenty hit in Albania.

He released his autobiography Oh What a Circus: The Autobiography of Tim Rice in 1998, which covered his childhood and early adult life until the opening of the original London production of Evita in 1978. He is currently working on a sequel, covering his life and career since then.

Rice was made a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994[4] (entitling him to the address "Sir Tim Rice" or "Sir Tim"), was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999, and was named a Disney Legend in 2002.[4]

In 2008, Rice received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[5] Tim is writing eight lyrics to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker. The working title is The Nutcracker: The Untold Story.[6]

Rice was re-united with Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2011 to pen new songs for Andrew's newest production of The Wizard of Oz which opened in March 2011 at the London Palladium.

He will also be participating in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six where he has written a piece based upon a chapter of the King James Bible[7]

On 15 and 22 October 2011 Rice was guest presenter for the BBC Radio 2 show Sounds of the 60s, standing in for regular presenter Brian Matthew who was unwell.[8]

Personal life

Rice married Jane McIntosh on 19 August 1974, but the marriage dissolved in the late 1980s after the British tabloid newspapers revealed that he had been conducting an affair with actress/singer Elaine Paige.[9][10][11] Jane retains the title Lady Rice. They have two children, Eva and Donald. Eva Rice, who was named after the title character from Evita, is the author of the novel The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, which was a finalist for the British Book Award Best Read of the Year.

Tim Rice supports Sunderland A.F.C. football club.[12] He was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by the University of Sunderland at a ceremony at the Stadium of Light in November 2006.[13] He was also a supporter of the Conservative Party, but in 2007 stated that the Conservatives were no longer interested in him and that his relationship with the Party had "irrevocably changed."[14]

Describing his religion, Rice has stated, “Technically I'm Church of England, which is really nothing. But I don't follow it. I wouldn't say I was a Christian. I have nothing against it." Conversely, he also stated that he adapted the Biblical stories of Joseph and Jesus to musicals because "I'd always rather take a true story over an untrue one." [15]

Rice runs his own amateur Heartaches Cricket Club, the name inspired by an Elvis Presley song.[16]

In September 1981, Rice, along with Colin Webb and Michael Parkinson, co-founded Pavilion Books with a publishing focus on music and the arts.[17]

Musical theatre

Film and television work

In addition to adaptations of his theatrical productions, Rice has worked on several original film and television projects:

Lyricist

Other work

  • Co-produced the 1986 London and 1988 Broadway productions of Chess as a partner in 3 Knights Ltd with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.
  • Co-produced the 1989 London production of Anything Goes as a partner in Anchorage Productions with Elaine Paige.
  • Co-produced, with Andrew Powell, Elaine Paige's 1981 self-titled album
  • Occasionally appears as a panelist on the BBC Radio 4 panel game Just a Minute.
  • Appears as host of the BBC Radio 2 weekly series Tim Rice's American Pie which explores the music and musicians of each state in the USA.

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External links


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