MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Love Story soundtrack composer Francis Lai dies aged 86

The movie starring Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw earned soundtrack composer Francis Lai an Oscar.

French composer Francis Lai of worldwide fame after his masterpiece soundtack for the Hollywwod blockbuster Love Story earned him an Oscar in 1970, has died at the age of 86. The mayor of his native Nice made the announcement Wednesday.

“It is with great sadness that I learn of the death of Francis Lai, this great composer from Nice,” Mayor Christian Estrosi reported. “I will soon propose to his family to give his name to an emblematic place of our city.”

A self-taught musician born in April 1932, he began his career as an accordionist for poet and singer Bernard Dimey, with whom he wrote songs for Edith Piaf, Juliette Greco and Yves Montand after settling in Paris's Montmartre district when he was still in his 20s.

Before Love Story, starring Ali McGraw and Ryan O'Neal, Lai had already achieved a modicum of fame in 1966 with his romantic theme for another Academy Award winner in 1966: A Man and A Woman, one of his 35 co works with film director Claude Lelouch. The combination of Lai's accordion and the wordless “da-ba-da-ba-da, da-ba-da-ba-da” vocals of a male-female duo struck a chord with record-buyers, propelling the soundtrack album to no. 10 on the American charts.

“He was the man of my life, an angel disguised as an accordionist,” Lelouch said in an interview with RTL radio. “We made 35 films together and we had a love story that lasted 50 years,” he added.

Lai is survived by his wife and three children.