Lionel Bart

Current Role

Lionel Bart died on 3rd April 1999 after a long battle against cancer.

Early Life

Lionel Bart was born Lionel Begleiter in 1930 and was the youngest of twelve children. He had ambition from an early age to become an artist and subsequently won a scholarship to St Martin's School of Art at the age of 16. He was expelled from the school for "mischievousness" and as a result dropped his ambition to be a painter. After serving a stint in the RAF, Lionel Begleiter changed his name to Lionel Bart. There are some sources suggesting this name change was in reference to the hospital, but other sources suggest it was due to his silk printing business. (He was in partnership with John Gorman, and the company name was G & B Arts.) He then joined the Unity, a left-wing theatre club where he began as a stage career as understudy, scenic painter and poster designer. His first play was called Wages of Sin, a story about equal pay for men and women.

Career Highlights

Perhaps Bart's most acclaimed work was converting Dicken's novel, Oliver Twist for the stage. Oliver! ran for years and launched the careers of many household names including Phil Collins and Tony Robinson to name a few. Some 50 years after it was originally shown, Oliver! is still making the headlines as the subject of the BBC's reality TV show, I'd Do Anything.

Lionel Bart has also had an extensive and impressive musical career. For three consecutive years, not a week went past without one of his hits appearing in the top twenty. It was during this period that he also received more Ivor Novello Song Awards than any other previous song writer. Bart's most acclaimed and perhaps most successful works include A handful of Songs for the great Tommy Steele and Living Doll for Cliff Richard. In 1960, Anthony Newley topped the charts with Bart's song, Do You Mind.

It was this successful career in the charts which enabled Bart to turn his attention to the stage. After the roaring success of Oliver!, Bart enjoyed success with Blitz! a production about life during the Second World War. The two shows ran concurrently, a feat which is likened only to the great minds of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn.

Interesting Facts

• Lionel Bart was born Lionel Begleiter before changing his name.
• Bart penned the hit Living Doll by Cliff Richard as well as writing the theme song for the Bond film, From Russia With Love.
• He sold the rights to Oliver! before it even hit the West End, so sadly he never really reaped the rewards of his masterpiece.