Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand sits near the summit of my personal pantheon. The Parisian wrote over 200 scores, won Oscars, a Golden Globe and the Legion of Honour, yet statistics undersell him. What floors me is how he fused jazz improvisation with cinematic longing, most famously in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, whose ache still lingers decades on. He conducted, played piano and sang with equal command, a true polymath of melody. He passed in 2019, but his themes refuse to die. Legrand is, for me, proof that a single composer can leave music the whole world keeps humming.

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Name (English)

Michel Legrand

Name (Japanese)

ミシェル・ルグラン

Reading

みしぇる・るぐらん

Born

February 24, 1932 – January 26, 2019

Origin

Paris, France

Height

187 cm

Occupation

conductor / composer / actor / singer / pianist

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Monkey

Awards & achievements

• Order of the Badge of Honour
• 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score
• 1984 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score
• 2015 Commander of the Legion of Honour
• 1972 BAFTA Award for Best Original Music
• 1969 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
• 2005 Officer of the Legion of Honour
• 1969 Academy Award for Best Original Song

• Official sitehttps://www.michellegrandofficial.com
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel%20Legrand
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9F%E3%82%B7%E3%82%A7%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B0%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q313281

Tags

• conductor
• composer
• actor

Last updated

September 23, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.