Lennie Hayton

Lennie Hayton was born in New York City in 1908 and became a jazz pianist and arranger during the big-band era. In the late 1920s he played with and arranged for Paul Whiteman's famous orchestra, working alongside musicians such as Bix Beiderbecke and Bing Crosby, and in the 1930s he led his own band on radio.

In 1940 Hayton joined MGM, which was building the most impressive musical unit in Hollywood under producer Arthur Freed. As composer, arranger and music director, he helped give the studio's musicals their sparkling, sophisticated sound, working closely with associate producer and arranger Roger Edens. Hayton and Edens shared the Academy Award for On the Town (1949), the exuberant story of three sailors on leave in New York, starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

Hayton was musical director of Singin' in the Rain (1952), often called the greatest movie musical. Its songs, by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, were mostly older hits, and Hayton's arrangements gave them fresh energy, from Gene Kelly's rain-soaked title number to the dazzling Broadway Melody ballet. He also worked on The Harvey Girls, The Pirate and Ziegfeld Follies.

In 1947 Hayton married singer and actress Lena Horne, an interracial marriage that defied the prejudice of the era; they kept it private for several years. He later served as her music director on records and in concerts. He won a second Oscar, shared with Lionel Newman, for Hello, Dolly! (1969), and died in 1971.