Oscar-Winning Songwriter Robert B. Sherman Has Died

Songwriter Robert B. Sherman has died at age 86 in London.

Working in tandem with his brother Richard, the pair won Oscars and Grammy Awards for the scores for the films Mary Poppins, now a Broadway musical, and The Jungle Book.

The Sherman Brothers’ other credits include songs for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang — which also became a Broadway musical — as well as Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The AristoCats, The Slipper and the Rose and several Winnie the Pooh movies. They also worked on the ill-fated Broadway-bound musical Busker Alley.

Tje Shermans also wrote the famous It’s A Small World, which has been heard at Disney theme parks all around the world, as well as numerous pop hits, including “Tall Paul” and “You’re Sixteen.”

The pair also received numerous other honors, include the Grammy Award, the Theatre Museum Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. They were also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The marquees of Disney’s New Amsterdam Theatre, home of the musical Mary Poppins, along with the Minskoff and Nederlander Theatres, which house Disney Theatrical Productions’ The Lion King and Newsies will dim at 7:01pm on Tuesday, March 6 in his honor.

The same tribute will be paid on March 6 at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton, Wisconsin, where the Mary Poppins national tour is playing and the March 7 performance of Mary Poppins in Perth, Australia will be dedicated to Sherman.