Andreas Ludwig Priwin
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Awards
André Previn won four Academy Awards for best adapted scoring, including Gigi and My Fair Lady, and served as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1968 to 1979. A child prodigy, he recorded his first jazz album at age 16 and later earned ten Grammy Awards. Previn died in New York City on February 28, 2019, at age 89.
Names, aliases, and relatives of André Previn — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
André Previn by the numbers — life, work, and family.
André Previn — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
At 16, André Previn recorded his first jazz piano album while attending Beverly Hills High School. Born Andreas Ludwig Priwin on April 6, 1929, in Berlin, Germany, into a Jewish family, Previn fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1939. They settled in Los Angeles, where his granduncle Charles Previn worked as musical director at Universal.
Previn joined MGM at age 17 in 1946, initially as an uncredited music supervisor. He remained at the studio until 1960, winning four Academy Awards for best adapted scores: Gigi 1958, Porgy and Bess 1959, Irma la Douce 1963, and My Fair Lady 1964. In the 1950s, he recorded jazz albums with drummer Shelly Manne and pianist Russ Freeman. He began conducting with the St. Louis Symphony in 1961 and became principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968, a post he held for eleven years. Later, he served as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic 1985–1989 and chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic 2002–2006.
André Previn married five times: to singer Betty Bennett 1952–1957, lyricist Dory Previn 1959–1970, actress Mia Farrow 1970–1979, Heather Mary Sneddon 1982–1999, and violinist Anne Sophie Mutter 2002–2006. He had ten children, including biological and adopted children with Bennett and Farrow. His divorce from Dory Previn dragged on for two years after he began dating Farrow in 1968. He died in New York City on February 28, 2019, at age 89.
Previn received an honorary knighthood KBE in 1996, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He earned ten Grammy Awards in jazz, classical, and film categories. His recordings of Gershwin and Ellington songbooks for Deutsche Grammophon in the late 1990s remain influential. Previn excelled as a jazz pianist, film composer, and classical conductor.
The complete filmography of André Previn — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by André Previn — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from André Previn — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
The 1990 Teenagers Feel That They Have Coined Both the Term ‘Cool’ and the Mannerisms That Illustrate the Word, but They Are in Fact a Good Thirty-five Years Too Late to Claim That Invention.
I Found That Jazz Musicians, Possibly More Than Their Classical Counterparts, Wear Long-standing Friendships Easily and Gracefully. Their Friendships Are Not Governed by Advancement Through Social Contact, and Tend to Be Governed by a Very Simple Rule: If They Like the Way You Play,and If They Believe You to Be a Nice Fellow, Then Fine. If One of Those Elements Is Badly Missing, Forget It.
I Don’t Care Where I Am. I Compose.
Oh, Get Away from Me, You and Your Jerky Questions, You Bloody Fool!
Little-known facts about André Previn — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Previn’s divorce from Dory Previn took two years to finalize after he began dating Mia Farrow in 1968.
Previn fathered ten children: two daughters with Betty Bennett, Claudia born June 24, 1954 and Alicia born February 11, 1957; three sons with Mia Farrow, fraternal twins Matthew and Sascha born February 26, 1970 and Fletcher born March 14, 1974; adopted three daughters with Farrow, Soon-Yi born October 8, 1970, Lark February 15, 1973 – December 25, 2008, and Daisy born October 6, 1974; a son with Heather Hales, Lukas born October 28, 1983; and adopted Heather’s daughter from a previous marriage, Li-An Mary born January 12, 1974.
Previn was the father-in-law of Woody Allen, who married his daughter Soon-Yi Previn. Allen had previously been in a long-term relationship with Previn’s ex-wife Mia Farrow.
He appeared as a stooge on The Morecambe & Wise Show in 1968, where he was called Andrew Preview.
In 1996, Previn was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire KBE for his services to music.
Previn was nominated for the 1970 Tony Award for Best Musical for his music in the Broadway show Coco.
Actor Robert LuPone portrayed Previn in the 1995 TV film Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story.
Previn served as chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic in Norway from 2002 to 2006.
Previn’s parents were Charlotte Epstein and Jacob Priwin, both German Jews. He had a brother, Steve Previn, and his father’s cousin was Charles Previn.
Through his marriage to Mia Farrow, Previn became the son-in-law of John Farrow and Maureen O’Sullivan, and brother-in-law to her siblings including Patrick, John Charles, Prudence, Stephanie, Tisa, and Ava Roosevelt.
At the 71st Emmy Awards, the In Memoriam segment mistakenly showed conductor Leonard Slatkin’s image instead of Previn’s.
Before turning twenty, Previn started arranging and composing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Previn had a warm relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic.
Previn served as music director of the Houston Symphony 1967–1969, principal conductor of the London Symphony 1968–1979, music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony 1976–1984 and the Los Angeles Philharmonic 1985–1989, chief conductor of the Royal Philharmonic 1985–1992, and chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic 2002–2006.
Previn won ten Grammy Awards across jazz, classical, and film recordings, plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about André Previn.
Celebrities similar to André Previn — same craft, ranked by reach.
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