Samuel Cohen, known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician.
17 Facts About Sammy Cahn
Sammy Cahn is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
Sammy Cahn played the piano and violin, and won an Oscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit "Three Coins in the Fountain".
Sammy Cahn's mother did not approve of Sammy studying it though, feeling that the piano was a woman's instrument, so he took violin lessons.
Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics to "Love and Marriage," later used as the ironic theme song for the FOX TV show Married.
Sammy Cahn contributed lyrics for two otherwise unrelated films about the Land of Oz, Journey Back to Oz and The Wizard of Oz.
Sammy Cahn became a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.
Sammy Cahn later took over the presidency of that organization from his friend Johnny Mercer when Mercer became ill.
Sammy Cahn died on January 15,1993, at the age of 79 in Los Angeles, California from heart failure.
Sammy Cahn's remains were interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Sammy Cahn changed his last name from Cohen to Kahn to avoid confusion with comic and MGM actor Sammy Cohen and again from Kahn to Cahn to avoid confusion with lyricist Gus Kahn.
Sammy Cahn was married twice: first in 1945 to vocalist and former Goldwyn girl Gloria Delson with whom he had two children.
Sammy Cahn received a Grammy Award nomination, with Van Heusen, for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show for the film Robin and the 7 Hoods.
Sammy Cahn has won the Christopher Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Theatre World Award.
Sammy Cahn was chosen because he had received more Academy Award nominations than any other songwriter, and because he received four Oscars for his song lyrics.
In 1993, taking up the sentiments expressed in the song, "High Hopes," the Sammy Cahn estate established the "High Hopes Fund" at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston.
The lyrics he wrote for Sinatra are the subject of a chapter in Gilbert Gigliotti's A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit, "Come [Fly, Dance, and Waltz with] Us on Equal Terms: The Whitmanesque Sinatra of Sammy Cahn," published by Greenwood Press in 2002.