Tim Rice

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Sir Tim Rice
File:Tim Rice - 1981.jpg
Rice in New York, 1981
Background information
Birth name Timothy Miles Bindon Rice
Born (1944-11-10) 10 November 1944 (age 79)
Origin Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
Genres Musical theatre, film, television
Occupation(s) Lyricist
Years active 1965–present
Associated acts Andrew Lloyd Webber, Alan Menken, Elton John, Stephen Oliver, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Cliff Richard
Website timrice.co.uk

Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, with Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, with whom he wrote Chess, and for additional songs for the 2011 West End revival of The Wizard of Oz, and for his work for Walt Disney Studios with Alan Menken (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, King David), Elton John (The Lion King, Aida, The Road to El Dorado) and Ennio Morricone.

Rice was knighted by Elizabeth II for services to music. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an inductee into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, is a Disney Legend recipient, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.

Early life

Rice was born at Shardeloes, an historic English country house near Amersham, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom that was requisitioned as a maternity hospital during World War II. His father, Hugh Gordon Rice, served with the Eighth Army and reached the rank of major during World War II, whilst his mother, Joan Odette (née Bawden), served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a photographic interpreter.[1][2] After the war, they worked for the de Havilland aircraft company.

Education

Lancing College

Rice was educated at three independent schools: Aldwickbury School in Hertfordshire, St Albans School, and Lancing College. He left Lancing with GCE A-Levels in History and French and then started work as an articled clerk for a law firm in London, having decided not to apply for a university place.[3] He later attended the Sorbonne in Paris for a year.

Career

After studying for a year in Paris at the Sorbonne, Rice joined EMI Records as a management trainee on 6 June 1966. When EMI producer Norrie Paramor left to set up his own organisation in 1968, Rice joined him as an assistant producer, working with, among others, Cliff Richard. Rice has collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cricket, and The Likes of Us. For The Walt Disney Company, Rice has collaborated individually with Alan Menken and Elton John, creating productions including Aladdin (winning an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Grammy Award for Song of the Year for the song "A Whole New World") and The Lion King (winning the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"). In 1996, his collaboration with Lloyd Webber for the film version Evita won Rice his third Academy Award for Best Original Song with the song "You Must Love Me". Rice has also collaborated with Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA on Chess and with Rick Wakeman on the albums 1984 and Cost of Living. Rice is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.[4]

Along with his brother Jo and the radio presenters Mike Read and Paul Gambaccini, he was a co-founder of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and served as an editor from 1977 to 1996. He has also been a frequent guest panellist for many years on the radio panel games Just a Minute and Trivia Test Match. Rice often jokes that he is most recognised in America for his appearance in the film About a Boy. The film includes several clips from a (real) edition of the game show Countdown on which he was the guest adjudicator. His other interests include cricket (he was President of the MCC in 2002) and maths. He wrote the foreword to the book Why Do Buses Come In Threes by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham, and featured prominently in Tony Hawks's One Hit Wonderland, where he co-wrote the song which gave Hawks a top twenty hit in Albania.

He released his autobiography Oh What a Circus: The Autobiography of Tim Rice in 1998, which covered his childhood and early adult life until the opening of the original London production of Evita in 1978. He is currently working on a sequel, covering his life and career since then.

File:Colin Frechter & Tim Rice.JPG
Tim Rice (right) with Colin Frechter in 1998

Rice was made a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994[5] (entitling him to the address "Sir Tim Rice" or "Sir Tim"), was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999, and was named a Disney Legend in 2002.[5]

In 2008, Rice received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[6] He is writing eight lyrics to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, The Nutcracker. The working title is The Nutcracker: The Untold Story.[7]

On 2 December 2010 he addressed the eighth Bradman Oration in Adelaide.

Rice was re-united with Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2011 to pen new songs for Lloyd Webber's newest production of The Wizard of Oz which opened in March 2011 at the London Palladium. Rice has, however, rejected working with Webber again, claiming their partnership has run its course, and they are "no longer relevant as a team".[8]

He also took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six Books for which he wrote a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible[9]

On 15 and 22 October 2011 Rice was guest presenter for the BBC Radio 2 show Sounds of the 60s, standing in for regular presenter Brian Matthew who was unwell.[10]

Personal life

Rice married Jane McIntosh on 19 August 1974, having met when working at Capital Radio. The marriage dissolved in the late 1980s after the British tabloid newspapers revealed that he had been conducting an affair with actress/singer Elaine Paige.[11][12][13] Jane retains the title Lady Rice as despite obtaining a divorce decree nisi, Sir Tim never made it absolute and therefore they remain technically married.

Lady Rice manages the family's 33,000-acre Dundonnell estate which Sir Tim bought in 1998 for £2 million. She has won awards for her conservation work with red squirrels. [14] They have two children, Eva, a novelist and singer/songwriter, and Donald, a film director who also helps to run Dundonnell. Eva, who was named after the title character from Evita, is the author of the novel The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, which was a finalist for the British Book Award Best Read of the Year. Sir Tim also has a daughter from another relationship with Nell Sully an artist, called Zoe [15][16]

Tim Rice supports Sunderland A.F.C. football club.[17] He was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by the University of Sunderland at a ceremony at the Stadium of Light in November 2006.[18] He was also a supporter of the Conservative Party, but in 2007 stated that the Conservatives were no longer interested in him and that his relationship with the Party had "irrevocably changed."[19] He was reported in early 2014 to be a donor for the UK Independence Party [20] However, he has since stated in an interview for Chat Life that the article was referring to a one off payment that he made at a dinner event held by the party around two years earlier advocating opposition to wind turbine construction, and that he was not a member or regular donor to any political party.

Despite his disenchantment with the Conservative Party, Rice joined Andrew Lloyd Webber, both supporters of Margaret Thatcher, at her funeral in 2013.[21]

Describing his religion, Rice has stated, “Technically I'm Church of England, which is really nothing. But I don't follow it. I wouldn't say I was a Christian. I have nothing against it." Conversely, he also stated that he adapted the biblical stories of Joseph and Jesus to musicals because "I'd always rather take a true story over an untrue one."[22]

Rice runs his own amateur Heartaches Cricket Club, the name inspired by an Elvis Presley song.[23]

In September 1981, Rice, along with Colin Webb and Michael Parkinson, launched Pavilion Books, a publishing house with a publishing focus on music and the arts. He held it until 1997.[24][25]

Rice is patron of London-based drama school, The Associated Studios.[26]

According to The Sunday Times Rich List of British millionaires from the world of music, Rice is worth £149 million as of 2013.[27]

Musical theatre

Film and television work

In addition to adaptations of his theatrical productions, Rice has worked on several original film and television projects:

Lyricist

  • "Peterloo", was requested by Sir Malcolm Arnold's estate to write lyrics to the Peterloo Overture [commemorating the horrific St Peter's Fields Massacre and maiming of men, women and children at a meeting in Manchester in Aug 1819]. There was in mind to use it in 2012 for the Olympics or for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations [60 years on throne] but instead it had its premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London at 'The Last Night of the Proms' on Saturday September 13th 2014 which was broadcast on BBC television.

Other work

References

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  9. ↑ [1] Archived 4 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Hastings, Christopher. "Elaine Paige: Sex, drugs and musicals", The Daily Telegraph, 20 September 2008.
  12. ↑ Middlehurst, Lester. "Dont Cry For Me!", Daily Mail, 20 May 2006.
  13. ↑ Kay, Richard. "Cry for Tim Rice – he's single again", Daily Mail, 9 December 2003.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ "The Telegraph
  16. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/9991897/Musicals-are-not-the-be-all-and-end-all-says-Tim-Rice.htm
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Viner, Brian. "Rice revels in latest role as MCC superstar", The Independent, 5 October 2002.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ The Associated Studios website: http://www.associatedstudios.co.uk
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by President of Lord's Taverners
1988–1990		 Succeeded by
Leslie Crowther
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