Carol Burnett is paying respects to her friend and long-time collaborator Steve Lawrence, the singer and Blues Brothers actor who died Thursday, March 7. He was 88.
“Steve was one of my favorite guests on my variety show, appearing 39 times. He was also my very close friend … so close that I considered him ‘family.’ He will always be in my heart,” Burnett wrote on Instagram alongside a black-and-white photograph of them performing together on The Carol Burnett Show.
Lawrence, best known as part of the music duo Steve and Eydie, passed away at his home in Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, his family confirmed in a press release. His cause of death was a result of “complications due to Alzheimer’s disease.”
Born on July 8, 1935, in New York City, Lawrence’s showbusiness career started as a teenager when he was hired by Steve Allen to be one of the singers on his late-night show on WNBC-TV. It was on this show that Lawrence met his future wife, Eydie Gormé. The show later transitioned to NBC, becoming The Tonight Show, where Lawrence remained until 1957.
Lawrence and Gormé married in 1957 and went on to form a popular musical partnership, gaining fame as Steve and Eydie. Together, they helmed the 1958 summer replacement series The Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé Show on NBC. They also starred together in the Broadway musical Golden Rainbow, which ran from February 1968 to January 1969.
On television, Lawrence was a frequent guest on The Carol Burnett Show between 1967 and 1978. He also briefly hosted his own variety program, The Steve Lawrence Show, which ran for 13 weeks in 1965 on NBC.
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As an actor, he appeared in the likes of The Judy Garland Show, Night Gallery, Police Story, Murder, She Wrote, and CSI. He also starred as Gary McBride in the 1972 film Stand Up and Be Counted.
Most notably, he portrayed Maury Sline in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, a role he reprised in the 1998 sequel, Blues Brothers 2000. His other film credits include the Steve Martin comedy The Lonely Guy and the crime thriller The Yards.
Throughout his career, Lawrence earned two Emmy Awards, as well as a Grammy, alongside his wife, for Best Performance By a Vocal Duo or Group for “We Got Us” in 1961.
Lawrence and Gormé continued performing together until the latter retired from singing in 2009; Gormé passed away in 2013.
He is survived by his son, David, daughter-in-law, Faye, granddaughter, Mabel, and brother, Bernie.
