Ray Evans, whose Oscar-winning songs include Mona Lisa, dies

Last Updated: Friday, February 16, 2007 | 11:34 PM ET

CBC News

Hollywood songwriter Ray Evans, who won Oscars for songs such as Mona Lisa and Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera), died Thursday night at the age of 92.

He succumbed to heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital, his longtime lawyer Frederick Nicholas confirmed Friday.

"I talked to him the day he died. He was just full of energy and excitement. When I heard last night that he died, I couldn't believe it," Nicholas said.

Evans, who was born on Feb. 4, 1915, in Salamanca, N.Y, had a career that spanned five decades, thanks to a long-term partnership with composer Jay Livingston.

Together, their collaborations won three Oscars and earned four extra Oscar nominations. They had a formula that worked — Evans wrote the lyrics, while Livingston composed the melodies.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the pair met at the University of Pennsylvania, where Evans was studying economics and Livingston was doing a journalism degree. Both had musical backgrounds — Evans played clarinet and Livingston piano — so they formed a band and played a circuit of university parties and dances.

When they graduated in 1937, they performed together on cruise ships before moving first to New York City, and then Hollywood, to work as a songwriting team.

Their first success came in 1941, with their song G'Bye Now, which landed on Your Hit Parade.

Their first Oscar nomination came in 1945 with their song The Cat and the Canary, from the movie Why Girls Leave Home.

Mona Lisa was Evans' favourite

Their first Oscar win came with their bouncy tune Buttons and Bows, which was included in the 1948 Bob Hope comedy The Paleface. Dinah Shore, among others, recorded the song.

But it was the Oscar-winner Mona Lisa, in the 1950s Alan Ladd movie Captain Carey, U.S.A., that was Evans' favourite among the dozens of movie songs he and Livingston wrote. Evans wanted to call Mona Lisa by the name Prima Donna, but his wife, Wyn, suggested Mona Lisa sounded nicer.

Wyn died in 2003.

"She was an art lover, and she said 'Prima Donna' didn't sound right. Why don't you call it 'Mona Lisa?"' said Victoria Looseleaf, who is writing Evans' biography.

Evans' and Livingston's third Oscar came with Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera), which was sung by Doris Day in the Alfred Hitchcock 1956 thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much.

The duo also produced the classic Christmas carol Silver Bells and the theme songs for the television series Bonanza and Mr. Ed.

While Evans and Livingston worked well together, they were nothing alike, Evans told the Los Angeles Times in 1985.

"I'm nuts about sports, play baseball and tennis every weekend," he said. "Jay couldn't care less. He's restrained and quiet. I'm more outward-going. Jay is a marvelous musician. I have a tin ear."

But he added: "Our tastes are similar, and we both like good music and song."

And the pair knew how to create good music and song, critics said again and again in their reviews. Fellow musicians also heaped on the praise.

"Ray had a great ear for language, for the vernacular, which is something he had in common with many of the great lyricists," singer and pianist Michael Feinstein told the Times.

"He was able to distill a mood or a feeling into a song without it sounding clichéd."

Evans and Livingston partnership ended when Livingston died in 2001, at age 86.

After Evans' death Thursday, Fernstein recounted a conversation he had with Evans less than two weeks ago.

"He said to me, 'I lived a great life and everything now is gravy. I take it day by day,"' Feinstein told the Associated Press. "He was always thrilled that his work survived."