By Marisol Nicholson

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Steve Lawrence (born Sidney Liebowitz; July 8, 1935 – March 7, 2024) was an American singer, comedian, and actor. He was best known as a member of the pop vocal duo “Steve and Eydie” with his wife Eydie Gormé, and for his performance as Maury Sline, the manager and friend of the main characters in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. Steve and Eydie first appeared together as regulars on Tonight Starring Steve Allen in 1954 and continued performing as a duo until Gormé’s retirement in 2009.

Eydie Gormé died on August 10, 2013, at age 84, after a brief, undisclosed illness.

In June 2019, following public speculation about his health, Lawrence announced that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and that treatment to slow its progression had so far been successful.

Lawrence died from complications due to Alzheimer’s disease in Los Angeles, on March 7, 2024, at the age of 88.

EARLY LIFE

Lawrence was born on July 8, 1935, as Sidney Liebowitz to Jewish parents in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. His father, Max, was a cantor at the Brooklyn synagogue Beth Sholom Tomchei Harav, and his mother, Helen, was a homemaker. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School. During his high school years, Lawrence cut school to hang out at the Brill Building in the hopes of being employed as a singer.