Tim Rice | |
|---|---|
 Rice in 2020 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (1944-11-10)10 November 1944 (age 81) Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Origin | Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Genres |
|
| Occupation | songwriter |
| Years active | 1966–present |
| Website | timrice |
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English songwriter. He is best known for his collaborations withAndrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows,Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,Jesus Christ Superstar, andEvita;Chess (withBjörn Ulvaeus andBenny Andersson ofABBA);Aida (withElton John); and, for Disney,Aladdin (withAlan Menken),The Lion King (with Elton John), and the stage adaptation ofBeauty and the Beast (with Menken). He also wrote lyrics for the Alan Menken musicalKing David, and forDreamWorks Animation'sThe Road to El Dorado (with John).
Rice wasknighted byElizabeth II for services to music in 1994. He has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame, is a 1999 inductee into theSongwriters Hall of Fame and is the 2023 recipient of itsJohnny Mercer Award,[1] is aDisney Legend recipient, and is a fellow of theBritish Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. In addition to his awards in the UK, he isone of twenty-one artists to have won anEmmy,Oscar,Grammy, andTony in the US.[2]
Rice twice hosted theBrit Awards (in 1983 and 1984). The 2020Sunday Times Rich List values Rice's wealth at £155m; the 21st-richest music millionaire in the UK.[3]
Rice was born atShardeloes, a historicEnglish country house nearAmersham, Buckinghamshire, that was requisitioned as a maternity hospital during theSecond World War. His father, Hugh Gordon Rice (1917–1988),[4] served with theEighth Army and reached the rank ofmajor during the Second World War, and afterward worked for theDe Havilland Aircraft Company, becoming Far East representative, and for theDiplomatic Service, including as adviser to theMinistry of Overseas Development atAmman, Jordan. Rice's mother, Joan Odette (née Bawden; 1919–2009), daughter of an entrepreneur in the London fashion trade, served in theWomen's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a photographic interpreter, and in her eighties became known as a writer on the publication of her wartime diaries.[5][6][7][8]
Rice was educated at three independent schools:Aldwickbury School in Hertfordshire,St Albans School andLancing College. He left Lancing withGCE A-Levels in History and French and then started work as anarticled clerk for a law firm in London, having decided not to apply for a university place.[9] He later attended theSorbonne in Paris for a year.
After studying for a year in Paris at theSorbonne, Rice joinedEMI Records as a management trainee in 1966.
In the liner notes of the 2006 CD compilationThat's my Story, (Sunbeam Catalogue No.: SBRCD5017) Rice notes that he played tambourine onRoss Hannaman's "I'll give all my Love to Southend"), whom he briefly managed.
When EMI producerNorrie Paramor left to set up his own organization in 1968, Rice joined him as an assistant producer, working with, among others,Cliff Richard andthe Scaffold.
Rice became famous for his collaborations withAndrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wroteJoseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,Jesus Christ Superstar,Evita,Cricket,The Likes of Us, and additional songs for the 2011 West End production ofThe Wizard of Oz.Joseph andSuperstar were additionally known as two of the first hit musicals that drew their sound from the rock and pop music that became embedded in culture in the 1960s.
ForThe Walt Disney Company, Rice has collaborated individually withAlan Menken andElton John, creating productions includingAladdin (winning anAcademy Award for Best Original Song,Golden Globe andGrammy Award for Song of the Year for "A Whole New World" in 1992) andThe Lion King (winning an Academy Award and Golden Globe for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" in 1994).
In 1996, his collaboration with Lloyd Webber for the film versionEvitawon Rice his third Academy Award for Best Original Song with the song "You Must Love Me". Rice has also collaborated withBjörn Ulvaeus andBenny Andersson ofABBA onChess and withRick Wakeman on the albums1984 andCost of Living. In 2009, he wrote the lyrics forAndrei Konchalovsky's critically pannedreimagining ofThe Nutcracker, set to the music ofPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.[10]
Rice reunited with Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2011 to pen new songs for Lloyd Webber's newest production ofThe Wizard of Oz which opened in March 2011 at theLondon Palladium. Rice has since, however, rejected working with Lloyd Webber again, claiming their partnership has run its course, and they are "no longer relevant as a team".[11]
In 2025, it was announced that Rice and Lloyd Webber will reunite to create the original songs for a new comedy playSherlock Holmes and The 12 Days of Christmas byDavid Reed andHumphrey Ker (from the British sketch comedy troupeThe Penny Dreadfuls) which will open in November for the Christmas season at theBirmingham Repertory Theatre.[12]
On 9 November 1979, Rice hosted a highly publicised edition ofFriday Night, Saturday Morning on the BBC which had aheated debate on the newly released filmMonty Python's Life of Brian, a film that had been banned by many local councils and caused protests throughout the world with accusations that it wasblasphemous (as the lyricist ofJesus Christ Superstar, Rice himself had been accused of blasphemy a decade before). To argue in favour of this accusation were veteran broadcaster and noted ChristianMalcolm Muggeridge andMervyn Stockwood (theBishop of Southwark). In defence of the film were two members of theMonty Python team,John Cleese andMichael Palin.[13]
Rice has also been a frequent guest panellist for many years on the radio panel gamesJust a Minute andTrivia Test Match. He also made an appearance in the filmAbout a Boy. The film includes several clips from an edition of the game showCountdown on which he was the guest adjudicator. His other interests include cricket (he was president of theMarylebone Cricket Club in 2002) and maths. He wrote the foreword to the bookWhy Do Buses Come in Threes byRob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham, and featured prominently inTony Hawks'sOne Hit Wonderland, where he co-wrote the song which gave Hawks a top twenty hit in Albania. On 2 December 2010 he addressed the eighthBradman Oration inAdelaide. In October 2011 and November 2016 to February 2017, Rice was guest presenter for theBBC Radio 2 showSounds of the '60s, standing in for regular presenterBrian Matthew who was unwell.[14]
Beginning in the lockdowns due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, in partnership with Broadway Podcast Network, Rice has presentedGet Onto My Cloud, apodcast retrospective of his career.[15] A number of episodes feature verbatim excerpts of his autobiography and all include various recordings of his and other associated musicians' work.
He released his autobiographyOh What a Circus: The Autobiography of Tim Rice in 1998, which covered his childhood and early adult life until the opening of the original London production ofEvita in 1978. He also took part in theBush Theatre's 2011 projectSixty Six Books for which he wrote a piece based upon a book of theKing James Bible.[16]
Rice was the president of theLondon Library, the largest independent lending library in Europe from 2017 to 2022.[17]
Along with his brother, Jo, and the radio presentersMike Read andPaul Gambaccini, he was a co-founder of theGuinness Book of British Hit Singles and served as an editor from 1977 to 1996. In September 1981, Rice, along with Colin Webb andMichael Parkinson, launchedPavilion Books, a publishing house with a publishing focus on music and the arts. He held it until 1997.[18][19]
Rice is a patron of the London-based drama school,Associated Studios[20] and was for several years, a patron of Thame Players Theatre along withBruce Alexander.[21]
Rice was made aKnight Bachelor byQueen Elizabeth II in 1994[22] (entitling him to the address "Sir Tim Rice" or "Sir Tim"), was inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame in 1999, and was named aDisney Legend in 2002.[22]
In 2008, Rice received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.[23]
He is a fellow member of theBritish Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.[24]
On 19 August 1974, Rice married Jane Artereta, daughter of Colonel Alexander Henry McIntosh,OBE,[4] and former wife of producer and talent agentMichael Whitehall,[25] the couple having met while working atCapital Radio. The marriage unravelled in the late 1980s after the British tabloid newspapers revealed that he had been conducting an affair with the singerElaine Paige.[26] Jane retains the title Lady Rice as, despite obtaining a divorcedecree nisi, the couple never made it absolute and therefore they remain legally married.
Lady Rice manages the family's 33,000-acreDundonnell estate which Sir Tim Rice bought in 1998 for £2 million. She has won awards for her conservation work with red squirrels.[27] They have two children, Eva Jane Florence, a novelist and singer-songwriter, and Donald Alexander Hugh, a film director and theatre producer who also helps to run Dundonnell.[28] Eva, who was named afterEva Perón, is the author of the novelThe Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, which was a finalist for theBritish Book Award Best Read of the Year.
Rice has a second daughter, Zoe Joan Eleanor, from a relationship with Nell Sully, an artist.[29] He has a third daughter, Charlotte Cordelia Violet Christina, from a relationship withLaura-Jane Foley, a writer. He has seven grandchildren.[30]
Despite having no familial or personal ties to the club, Rice has been a fan ofSunderland AFC since his early childhood.[31]
Previously a supporter of theConservative Party, in 2007 Rice stated that the party were no longer interested in him and that his relationship with them had "irrevocably changed."[32] Rice andAndrew Lloyd Webber, both supporters ofMargaret Thatcher, attended her funeral in 2013.[33]
Rice raised funds for theEuro No campaign in 2000.[34] In 2014, he donated £7,500 to theUK Independence Party.[35] In May 2016, he toldThe Spectator that he would vote forBrexit in the following month'sreferendum on the issue, saying: "It would be good to spend one's final years as part of a truly independent nation once more." He said he had voted to remain in theEuropean Economic Community in 1975 "from a standpoint of ignorance".[36]
Describing his religion, Rice stated in a 1982 interview, "Technically I'mChurch of England, which is really nothing. But I don't follow it. I wouldn't say I was a Christian. I have nothing against it." Conversely, he also stated that he adapted the Biblical stories of Joseph and Jesus to musicals because "I'd always rather take a true story over an untrue one."[37]
According toThe Sunday TimesRich List of the UK's richest millionaires, Rice is worth £155 million as of 2020.[3]
In 2015, Rice expressed his indebtedness to the journalistAngus McGill as "the man responsible for Andrew Lloyd Webber and I having our first song recorded". Speaking at McGill's funeral,[38] Rice told a tale from his days at EMI about trying to rig the results of theLondon Evening Standard Girl of the Year competition in 1967. As "glorified office boy", Rice was writing songs with Lloyd Webber and desperate to find anybody to record one of their songs. Rice and colleagues filled in 5,000 entry forms overnight voting for the contestant who was a singer, and delivered them to McGill, who supervised the competition. Rice said it was "a disgraceful act of dishonesty on my part... without actually breaking the rules". As a result, theStandard proclaimed two Girls of the Year and Rice's choice,Rosalind ("Ross") Hannaman,[39] was signed to EMI, where she made her first record. Rice said at the funeral: "I owe [Angus] an awful lot, which is just one of the reasons why I'm here today."
In addition to adaptations of his theatrical productions, Rice has worked on several original film and television projects:
| Awards and achievements | ||
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| Preceded by | President ofLord's Taverners 1988–1990 | Succeeded by |
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