Tim Rice

Sir Tim Rice was honored with the 2,375th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Leron Gubler, President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, presided over the ceremony. Guests included Dick Cook, Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, and music executive Peter Asher.

6243 Hollywood Boulevard on November 20, 2008.

A prolific lyricist and writer, Sir Tim Rice was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in the fall of 1944. Rice pursued his university education at Lancing College and briefly at l'Universite de Paris – Sorbonne. He was considering a legal career around the time that he met Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1965. Three years later, the two young men composed a 20-minute pop musical that would eventually become Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The piece premiered in 1968 at the Colet Court School in the City of London. During the following months, Rice and Webber lengthened the show to 30 minutes, and a record album of 'Joseph' (with Rice singing the role of Pharaoh) was made at the end of the year.

Remaining in partnership with Webber, his next project was Jesus Christ Superstar. Introduced to the public as a concept album in 1970, the opera propelled Rice and Webber to international stardom. Staged versions appeared the following year, and their popularity led to the film Jesus Christ Superstar (1973). Following 'Superstar', Rice and Webber returned to their previous project, expanding it to its finalized form. The concept album for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was released in 1974.

The duo went on to collaborate in their third musical called Evita. Its concept album was released in 1976. Rice won two Tony Awards for the show.

Rice's next work, Blondel, appeared in 1983. Set to music by Stephen Oliver, Blondel was arguably the most comic and witty of Rice's major works. The opera Chess followed, with its concept album arriving in 1984. Former Abba songwriters Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson provided the music for Chess, and the concept album was an international hit. Chess was staged in London in 1986 with great success.

In 1991, he was hired to finish the lyrics for the Walt Disney film Aladdin, and Disney subsequently teamed him with Elton John for The Lion King. Rice also composed additional lyrics for the stage version of Disney's film Beauty and the Beast, which opened on Broadway in 1994. A stage version of The Lion King opened on Broadway in 1997, as he was working with Elton John on two new projects – Aida, which opened on Broadway in 2000, and which won him the Tony Award and in the same year he worked on the Dreamworks film The Road to El Dorado.

Rice is also the recipient of three Oscars – all for Best Original Song in a motion picture: A Whole New World from Aladdin (with Alan Menken) Can You Feel The Love Tonight from Lion King (with Elton John) You Must Love Me from Evita (with Andrew Lloyd Webber).

The 1991 to 2000 period also saw a flurry of activity for Tim Rice's earlier works. Major revival productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'and Jesus Christ Superstar were staged in many parts of the world. Additionally, there was the film Evita (1996), as well as the TV films Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar).

In 1994, Rice was knighted by HRH Queen Elizabeth II. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999 and was, in 2002, named a Disney Legend.

He released his autobiography Oh What a Circus – The Autobiography of Tim Rice in 1998, which covered his childhood and early adult life. He is currently working on a sequel.

Rice continues to have projects in development for the theatre and for film.