Ira Gershwin

Biography

In 1918 Ira began a remarkable collaboration with his younger brother George that lasted until George’s early death in 1937. Their show, Lady, Be Good!, in 1924, became the first of more than 20 scores for stage and screen. In 1935, with DuBose Heyward, they wrote the opera Porgy and Bess. Ira’s collaboration with George, as well as with Vincent Youmans, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Kurt Weill, Jerry Kern, Aaron Copland, Harry Warren, Arthur Schwartz, and Burton Lane, set new standards for American stage and film musicals. Ira was nominated for three Academy Awards and died in 1983.