Friend Reveals Marvin Hamlisch Had Undergone Kidney Transplant

Composer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch, who died Monday in Los Angeles after a brief, undisclosed illness, recently had a kidney transplant.

FOX News reporter Cal Thomas published a touching remembrance in which he said his good friend Hamlisch had a kidney transplant that very few people knew about.

Thomas wrote, “Recently he had a kidney transplant, which was known only to a few people. He told his wife, Terre Blair, he would rather die than be ahead of someone on a waiting list. He didn't have to worry. A close friend donated one of his own kidneys. Terre said the new kidney was functioning well, but complications from an unrelated condition drove him into a coma from which he never recovered.”

It is unknown exactly when the transplant took place, or what the additional condition was.

In his nearly 50-year career, Hamlisch won three Academy Awards, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony and three Golden Globes and even a Pulitzer (for “A Chorus Line”). He is one of just 11 artists to win all four major awards, an achievement known as the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony).

Hamlisch served as principal pops conductor for symphony orchestras in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Dallas, Pasadena, Seattle and San Diego.