At the 1965 Academy Awards ceremony, Robert and Richard Sherman had already won the Best Score Oscar for Mary Poppins when they were called back on stage to pick up the Best Song statuette for “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” Having already thanked everyone, Robert told the audience there was only one thing to add: “Supercalifragilistic...” Then, as so often happened when they spoke, Richard finished his older brother’s sentence, saying “expialidocious.”
Sherman was born in Brooklyn to a family of entertainers. His father, Al, wrote Broadway show tunes, and his mother, Rosa, was a silent-film actress. The family moved to Southern California when Sherman was still a boy, and at age 17 he enlisted in the Army. “Two years later, he led a squad of men into the Dachau concentration camp, the first Americans to stumble on the horrors there,” said the London Guardian. The experience changed Sherman forever. “My father had a lot of weight on him when he came back from the war,” said his son Jeffrey. “All he wanted to do with his life was make people happy.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The brothers’ clashing personalities—Richard was gregarious, Robert more somber—sometimes led to fierce fights in which the two would hurl typewriters at each other, said the London Telegraph. But “as songwriters, they were a perfect combination,” said Dick Van Dyke, who starred as the chimney sweep Bert in Mary Poppins. “The emotion was Robert and the fun was Dick’s part. They were made by God for Walt Disney.”
-
5 chilling cartoons about increasing ICE aggressionCartoons Artists take on respect for the law, the Fourth Amendment, and more
-
Political cartoons for January 24Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include 3D chess, political distractions, and more
-
Ryanair/SpaceX: could Musk really buy the airline?Talking Point Irish budget carrier has become embroiled in unlikely feud with the world’s wealthiest man
-
Bob Weir: The Grateful Dead guitarist who kept the hippie flameFeature The fan favorite died at 78
-
Brigitte Bardot: the bombshell who embodied the new FranceFeature The actress retired from cinema at 39, and later become known for animal rights activism and anti-Muslim bigotry
-
Joanna Trollope: novelist who had a No. 1 bestseller with The Rector’s WifeIn the Spotlight Trollope found fame with intelligent novels about the dramas and dilemmas of modern women
-
Frank Gehry: the architect who made buildings flow like waterFeature The revered building master died at the age of 96
-
R&B singer D’AngeloFeature A reclusive visionary who transformed the genre
-
Kiss guitarist Ace FrehleyFeature The rocker who shot fireworks from his guitar
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film FestivalFeature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
