Biography
A veteran of films, television, and the Las Vegas stage, musician Steve Lawrence is probably most recognizable to film audiences as
The Blues Brothers' Maury Sline. Born Sidney Leibowitz in Brooklyn, New York, on July 8, 1935, Lawrence began writing music at the age of 16 and broke into television as a performer on
Steve Allen's
Tonight Show in the mid-'50s. A fixture of various TV variety shows throughout the '60s, including
The Carol Burnett Show, Lawrence entered the realm of film cult stardom with his role in
The Blues Brothers (1980), and went on to do sporadic screen work for the next couple of decades. In addition to supporting roles in
Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), the boxing drama
Play It to the Bone (2000), and the crime mystery
The Yards, Lawrence had a recurring role on the TV sitcom
The Nanny. Along with his wife Eydie Gorme, whom he married in 1957, Lawrence was a fixture of the Las Vegas stage for a long time, where he and Gorme often performed as the supporting act for
Frank Sinatra. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide