“My Dad was an inspiration to so many people. But, to me, he was just this charming, handsome, hysterically funny guy who sang a lot,” son David Lawrence said in a statement. “Sometimes alone and sometimes with his insanely talented wife. I am so lucky to have had him as a father and so proud to be his son. My hope is that his contributions to the entertainment industry will be remembered for many years to come.”
Lawrence was born in Brooklyn and enjoyed decades of success as one half of the iconic singing duo, Steve & Eydie.
He met his future wife, singer Eydie Gorme, on Steve Allen’s Tonight Show where they were both regulars, and in 1957 they made their singing partnership even more official by marrying in Las Vegas.
“I think Steve Allen was the biggest thing that happened to me,” Lawrence, who would sing and joke with Allen in the style of the modern “Tonight Show,” once said. “Every night I was called upon to do something different. In its own way, it was better than vaudeville.”
The duo performed their act around the country in the 1960s and on the top variety programs of the time including, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Hollywood Palace.
Lawrence was nominated for a Tony® Award for his performance on Broadway in “What Makes Sammy Run?” and the duo starred in “Golden Rainbow,” a highlight of the 1968/69 Broadway season.
Lawrence and his wife produced and starred in three TV specials including tributes to the Gershwins, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin — which earned duo numerous Emmy Awards®.
In 1997, Steve and Eydie recorded a lounge remake of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” the Seattle grunge band’s signature song from 1994.
“Disney came to us. They were doing a ‘Loungapalooza’-type of album, and they asked us to do a song that was made popular by Soundgarden, which is a heavy metal rock group,” Lawrence recalled to King. “And they sent the CD and said, ‘Would you?’ And this is when I was considering recording this. And I said, ‘Are you talking about us, Steve and Eydie?’ They said, ‘We want you to do it in your own way.'”
Lawrence and Gormé found huge success in Las Vegas, playing shows together that featured songs and banter about their relationship. In later years they toured the country playing nightclubs. And as music tastes changed and evolved, they stayed with the type of music that made them famous.
“A lot of people our age . . . try to make the switch and do rock,” Gormé told The New York Times in 1992, when she was 60 and he was 57. “But if we came out in jeans and sneakers it would look ridiculous. We’re stuck with who we are.”
In 1980, Lawrence appeared in the smash musical comedy The Blues Brothers as the titular brothers’ agent. He reprised his role in the sequel, 1998’s Blues Brothers 2000. He made other appearances in movies and television, including playing Fran Fine’s father on the long-running series The Nanny.
Lawrence and Gormé were good friends with Frank Sinatra. They joined him for his Diamond Jubilee World Tour, his final, which ran from 1990 to 1991.
