33 Facts About Rupert Holmes

1.

Rupert Holmes is widely known for the hit singles "Escape " and "Him".

2.

Rupert Holmes is known for his musicals The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which earned him two Tony Awards, and Curtains, and for his television series Remember WENN.

3.

Rupert Holmes's father, Leonard Eliot Goldstein, was a United States Army warrant officer and bandleader.

4.

The family moved when Holmes was six years old to the northern New York City suburb of Nanuet, New York, where Holmes grew up and attended nearby Nyack High School and then the Manhattan School of Music.

5.

In 1969, Rupert Holmes married childhood friend Elizabeth "Liza" Wood Dreifuss, an attorney.

6.

Rupert Holmes finished the project and released "Jennifer Tomkins" separately under a different studio name, Street People.

7.

Rupert Holmes played the piano for both the Cuff Links and the Buoys, with whom he had his first international hit, "Timothy", which was on the Hot 100 for 17 weeks beginning on January 2,1971, a No 17 song about cannibalism that intentionally drew controversy.

8.

Rupert Holmes wrote jingles and pop tunes, as well as the score of the 1970 revenge western Five Savage Men, which starred Keenan Wynn.

9.

Rupert Holmes then used some of his songs in the movie A Star Is Born.

10.

Rupert Holmes arranged, conducted, and wrote songs on her 1975 album Lazy Afternoon as well as five other Streisand albums.

11.

Rupert Holmes's second, self-titled album led Rolling Stone to compare him with Bob Dylan as an artist of unprecedented originality who commanded attention.

12.

Rupert Holmes additionally produced Sparks' 1976 LP, Big Beat, though the album was not a success.

13.

In 1975, together with Jeffrey Lesser, Rupert Holmes produced the UK band Sailor's album Trouble.

14.

Rupert Holmes produced two songs for singer Judy Collins that appeared on her album Sanity and Grace.

15.

In 2021, Rupert Holmes received an honorary Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

16.

Rupert Holmes made his professional debut as a playwright with the musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood in 1985.

17.

Joseph Papp and his wife encouraged Rupert Holmes write a musical after they attended one of his cabarets in 1983.

18.

The result, loosely based on Charles Dickens's unfinished novel of the same name, and inspired by Rupert Holmes's memories of English pantomime shows he attended as a child, was a hit in New York's Central Park and on Broadway.

19.

Drood's success led Rupert Holmes to write other plays in later years, though he has said that he avoided musical theater for some time after his daughter's death.

20.

Rupert Holmes wrote the Tony Award-nominated Say Goodnight, Gracie, based on the relationship between George Burns and Gracie Allen.

21.

Rupert Holmes wrote the comedy-thriller Accomplice in 1990, the second of Holmes's plays to receive an Edgar Award.

22.

Rupert Holmes wrote the book to Swango: The Theatrical Dance Experience, a swing-tango dance piece that premiered Off-Broadway in 2002 inspired by Romeo and Juliet.

23.

Rupert Holmes joined the creative team of the musical Curtains after the deaths of both Peter Stone and Fred Ebb.

24.

Rupert Holmes rewrote Stone's original book and contributed additional lyrics to the Kander and Ebb songs.

25.

Rupert Holmes wrote the book of the musical The First Wives' Club, adapted from the film of the same name.

26.

Rupert Holmes next wrote the book for a jukebox musical, Robin and the 7 Hoods, inspired by the 1964 film of the same name starring Frank Sinatra, with a new story line that Rupert Holmes set in 1962.

27.

Rupert Holmes adapted the John Grisham novel and film A Time to Kill for the stage.

28.

Rupert Holmes wrote the book and lyrics for The Nutty Professor, a musical based on the 1963 film of the same name.

29.

Rupert Holmes next wrote the book of Secondhand Lions: A New Musical, which premiered in Seattle, Washington, in 2013.

30.

In 2016, The Sweet Potato Queens, with music by Melissa Manchester, lyrics by Sharon Vaughn and a book by Rupert Holmes, premiered at TUTS Underground.

31.

In 1996, Rupert Holmes created the television series Remember WENN for American Movie Classics, writing the theme song and all 56 episodes of that series.

32.

Rupert Holmes wrote and co-produced, and was a keyboardist on, the songs on the disco album Shobizz, released in 1979 by Capitol Records.

33.

Rupert Holmes featured as a vocalist on the 1983 album Lake Freeze - The Raccoons Songtrack by The Raccoons.