Jule Styne

1905 - 1994

Jule Styne (born Julius Kerwin Stein; December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994)[2] was an English-American songwriter and composer best known for a series of Broadway musicals, including several famous frequently-revived shows that also became successful films: Gypsy, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Funny Girl. The name Jule was "pronounced JOO-lee."[3]

Styne was born to a Jewish family[4] in London, England.[2] His parents, Anna Kertman and Isadore Stein, were emigrants from Ukraine, the Russian Empire and ran a small grocery.[5] Even before his family left Britain, he did impressions on the stage of well-known singers, including Harry Lauder who saw him perform and advised him to take up the piano.[6] At the age of eight, he moved with his family to Chicago where he began piano lessons. He proved to be a prodigy and performed with the Chicago, St. Louis, and Detroit Symphonies before he was ten years old.