Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman (May 17, 1950 – March 14, 1991) was an American playwright, lyricist and stage director. He collaborated with composer Alan Menken on several works and is most widely known for his work on feature films for Walt Disney Animation Studios, for which Ashman wrote the lyrics and Menken composed the music. His work included songs for "Little Shop of Horrors", "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Aladdin". Sir Tim Rice took over to write the rest of the songs for the latter film after Ashman's death in 1991. Early life and education. Ashman  was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Shirley Thelma (née Glass) and Raymond Albert Ashman, an ice cream cone manufacturer. His family was Jewish. He started his theater experiences with the Childrens Theater Association (CTA), playing roles such as Aladdin. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College (with a stop at Tufts University's Summer Theater) and then went on to earn his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974. Career. After graduating from Indiana in 1974 he moved to New York and worked as an editor at Grosset & Dunlap. His first two plays, "Cause Maggie 's Afraid of the Dark" and "Dreamstuff", were met with mixed reviews. His play "The Confirmation" was produced in 1977 at Princeton's McCarter Theater and starred Herschel Bernardi. In 1977 he became the artistic director of the WPA Theater in New York. He met future collaborator Alan Menken at the BMI Workshop, where he was classmates with Maury Yeston and Ed Kleban, among others. He first worked with Menken on the 1979 musical "Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater", adapted from Vonnegut's novel of the same name. They also collaborated on "Little Shop of Horrors" with  Ashman as director, lyricist, and librettist, winning the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics. He also directed the workshop of "Nine" by Yeston at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and after asking why Guido's wife stays with him after she knows he has not been faithful, inspired Yeston to write "My Husband Makes Movies". Ashman was director, lyricist, and book writer for the 1986 Broadway musical "Smile" (music by Marvin Hamlisch). Also in 1986, Ashman wrote the screenplay for the Frank Oz–directed film adaptation of his musical "Little Shop of Horrors", as well as contributing the lyrics for  two new songs, "Some Fun Now" and "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space," the latter of which received an Academy Award nomination. In 1986, Ashman was brought in to write lyrics for a song in Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Oliver & Company". While there, he was told about another project that they had been working on for a couple years. The film was "The Little Mermaid", Disney's first fairy tale in 30 years. Ashman, along with Menken, wrote all of the songs for the film. Ashman became a driving force during the early years of the "Disney Renaissance". He would  hold story meetings and said the animation and musical styles were made for each other which is why Disney needed to continue making musical movies. He also made strong choices in casting actors with strong musical theater and acting backgrounds. "The Little Mermaid" was released in November 1989 and it was an enormous success. Ashman and Menken received two Golden Globe nominations and three Academy Award nominations, including two for "Kiss the Girl" and "Under The Sea" with Ashman winning both awards for the latter. In 1988, while working on "The Little Mermaid", Ashman pitched the idea of an animated  musical adaptation of "Aladdin" to Disney. After he wrote a group of songs with partner Alan Menken and a film treatment, a screenplay was written by Linda Woolverton, who had worked on "Beauty and the Beast". Directors John Musker and Ron Clements then joined the production, and the story underwent many changes, with some elements of the original treatment being dropped. Out of the 16 songs written for "Aladdin", three of Ashman's songs ended up in the finished film, which was released after his death. During early production of "Aladdin", Ashman and Menken were approached to help reinvigorate and  save the production of "Beauty and the Beast", which was going nowhere as a non-musical. Ashman, wishing to focus on "Aladdin" and his health, reluctantly agreed. It was at this time that his health began to decline due to his illness. Regardless, he completed lyrical work on "Beauty and the Beast" before succumbing to AIDS. The film was released mere months after his death and is dedicated to him. In May 2020, "Beauty and the Beast" co-director Kirk Wise said, "If you had to point to one person responsible for the 'Disney Renaissance', I would say it was  Howard." Along with Menken, Ashman was the co-recipient of two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards. Illness and death. After Disney's 62nd Academy Awards for "The Little Mermaid", Ashman told fellow composer Alan Menken that they needed to talk about something important when they got home in Fishkill, New York. Upon arrival at Ashman's house, Ashman revealed to Menken that he was sick and had tested positive for HIV/AIDS. Ashman did survive to see an early screening of "Beauty and the Beast". Historian Peter C. Kunze noted that Ashman was supported by  Jeffrey Katzenberg after coming out as HIV-Positive, with the company even creating a production unit near his home so he could receive treatment in New York City rather than traveling to Burbank, California, to work on "Beauty and the Beast". When taken to St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, he weighed 80 pounds, had lost his sight, and could barely speak. On the early morning of March 14, 1991, two months before his 41st birthday, he died from heart failure caused by HIV/AIDS. "Beauty and the Beast" is dedicated to him, featuring the following message at the end  of the closing credits: "To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman 1950-1991". He is buried in Oheb Shalom Cemetery in Reistertown, Maryland. Personal life. Ashman never married, as same-sex marriage was not legal during his lifetime, and also had no children. He met Stuart White, one of his first partners, at a summer university program in 1969. Originally close friends, the two formed a bond which led to a secret relationship. They both completed master's degrees at Indiana University and then moved  to upstate New York. Ashman and White re-opened the Workshop of Players Art Foundation (WPA) together as artistic directors. The two fell out in 1980, but reunited briefly prior to White's death from AIDS in July 1983. Ashman's partner at the time of his death was Bill Lauch, who worked as an architect. Lauch accepted Ashman's posthumous Oscar for "Beauty and the Beast" in 1992. Awards and nominations. Over the course of his career, Ashman won two Academy Awards (one posthumous) out of seven nominations. Of these nominations, four are posthumous nominations, the most in Academy  Awards history. He also won a posthumous Laurence Olivier Award and five Grammy Awards (three of them posthumous), among other accolades. Tributes. On the 2002 Special Edition DVD of "Beauty and the Beast", the Disney animators teamed up again and added a new song called "Human Again", which Ashman and Menken had written for the film, but was cut from the finished film. On Disc 2, there is a short documentary entitled "Howard Ashman: In Memoriam" that features many people who worked on "Beauty and the Beast" who talk about Howard's involvement on the film and how his death  was truly a loss for them. Jeffrey Katzenberg claims there are two angels watching down on them that put their magic touch on every film they made. Those two angels are Ashman and Walt Disney himself. An album of Ashman singing his own work entitled "Howard Sings Ashman" was released on November 11, 2008, by PS Classics as part of the Library of Congress "Songwriter Series." The 2009 documentary, "Waking Sleeping Beauty", which centers around Disney's animation renaissance, is dedicated to him, as well as Frank Wells, Joe Ranft, and Roy E. Disney. In March 2017, Don Hahn confirmed  he was working on a documentary biographical film about Howard Ashman. The documentary film titled "Howard" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22, 2018, before having a limited theatrical run on December 18, 2018. It was released on Disney+ on August 7, 2020.