lionel bart, a composer of songs and musicals

Lionel Bart was born on the 1st August, 1930.

Lionel was the youngest of seven surviving children of a Jewish family in the East End of London. His father worked as a tailor in a garden shed in London E1. The family had escaped the pogroms in Galicia which was then part of the Austrian Empire.

When Lionel Bart was six a teacher told his parents that he was a musical genius. His parents gave him an old violin, but he did not apply himself and the lessons stopped.

At the age of 16 he obtained a scholarship to St Martin's School of Art but he was expelled for "mischievousness", and he gave up his ambition to be a painter. However, he took jobs in silk-screen printing works and commercial art studios.

His original name was Lionel Begleiter. After seeing St Bartholomews hospital ("Barts") when passing by on a bus he changed his name to Bart. His work included writing comedy songs for the Sunday lunchtime BBC radio programme the Billy Cotton Band Show.

In September 1956 he saw Tommy Hicks performing guitar in a Soho coffee bar. He signed him up to perform in a group called the Cavemen. Lionel Bart persuaded John Kennedy and Larry Parnes to see Tommy Hicks perform. They were impressed, they signed him up and he adopted the stage name Tommy Steele. Lionel Bart won three Ivor Novello Awards in 1957, four in 1959, and two in 1960. In 1960 he was given the Variety Club Silver Heart for Show Business Personality of the Year.

Lionel Bart's greatest success was the musical Oliver!. It opened at the New Theatre (later to become the Albery Theatre) on 30 June, 1960 and received 23 curtain calls. It ran for 2618 performances in London. It opened on Broadway in 1963 and ran there for 774 performances. The 1968 film version, directed by Carol Reed, won several Oscars, including Best Picture.

The musical Twang!! in 1965 was a flop but he tried to prop up its failing finances with his own money. He sold the rights to his past and future works, including those of Oliver! to keep himself solvent but he still ended up declaring himself bankrupt in 1972. This led to a decade drinking in his flat in Acton. He was banned from driving in 1975 for driving under the influence of drink, and he was banned again in 1983 for two years. His old friend John Gorman reappeared to help Lionel sort out his life. He joined Alcoholics Anonymous and gave up drinking. He also took his diabetes more seriously.

He gained attention again in the 1980s with a new version of Livin' Doll with satirical words.

In 1986 he received a special Ivor Novello Award for his life's achievement. Cameron Mackintosh, who owned half the rights to Oliver!, revived the musical at the London Paladium in 1994 in a version rewritten by Lionel Bart. Cameron Mackintosh gave Lionel a share of the production royalties. Although Lionel Bart was known to be gay by those in the theatre world he was often publicly romantically linked with Judy Garland or Alma Cogan.

Lionel Bart died of cancer on Saturday 3 April, 1999 aged 68. He was working with Bob Carlton at the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch on a production of Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be.

In 2006 the Queen's presented It's a Fine Life! This was a piece of new writing by Chris Bond and followed Lionel Bart's journey from East End rags to West End riches and back again. It was an uplifting musical featuring many hit songs from his most popular shows and received a fantastic reception.

Photograph of Lionel Bart by Nobby Clark 1999