Oscar and Grammy-winning songwriter Norman Gimbel has died. According to a tribute posted BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), the songwriter passed away earlier this week in his Monticeto, California home at the age of 91. No cause of death was listed.
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Gimbel was probably best known around genre circles as the creator — along with long-time collaborator Charles Fox — of the theme song behind Lynda Carter‘s Wonder Woman television series. Together, Gimbel and Fox wrote more than 150 songs together, including the Grammy-winning Killing Me Softly (Song of the Year, 1973) sung by Roberta Flack.
He and Fox also co-wrote the themes behind classic television programs such as Happy Days and Lavern and Shirley.
In cinema, Gimbel walked away with an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1979 for his work on “It Goes Like It Goes” from the film Norma Rae, starring Sally Field.
Born on November 16, 1927 in Brooklyn New York, Gimbel first entered the music industry working under David Blum and Edwin H. Morris. For Blum and Morris, Gimbel worked on Rocochet Romance and Canadian Sunset before moving to Broadway productions like Whoop-Up (1958) and The Conquering Hero (1961).
Moving to Hollywood in 1967, Gimbel soon immersed himself in the industry, working with composers such as Quincy Jones and Burt Bachrach. Songs written or co-written by Gimpel have appeared in many genre films. Most recently, Jim Croce’s “I Got A Name” was on the soundtrack for Logan while “The Girl from Ipanema” appeared in the Steven DeKnight-helmed Pacific Rim: Uprising.
Gimbel was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984.
Some of Gimbel’s last original work on films came on Disney’s straight-to-video Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp’s Adventure in 2001.
Gimbel is survived by two sons — Peter and Tony, the latter was charged with running his father’s publishing company — and two daughters, Nelly and Hannah. Memorial details are pending.
