Emmy winner Adam Schlesinger, best known as the co-founder of the 2000s pop-rock band Fountains of Wayne, has succumbed to coronavirus complications. He was 52.
The composer was admitted to hospital after testing positive for COVID-19 infection and was on ventilator.
Schlesinger passed away on Wednesday morning, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed with Schlesinger’s lawyer.
He is also known for co-writing the band’s 2003 hit “Stacy’s Mom“.
Schlesinger also worked as an executive music producer on the musical show at The CW “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and composed songs for “A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!”, “Too Late With Adam Carolla”, “The Howard Stern Radio Show” and “The Dana Carvey Show”.
He won three Primetime Emmys: two for original music and lyrics for the 2011 and 2012 Tony Awards and, another for original music and lyrics for “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” in 2015.
“A Colbert Christmas”, co-written by Schlesinger and David Javerbaum, won him the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Schlesinger also penned the iconic song “That Thing You Do”, which was part of the 1996 film of the same name, starring Tom Hanks. The actor also wrote and directed the film.
Hanks, who himself is recuperating from the coronavirus at home, took to Twitter to mourn the writer, who receive an Oscar nod for the song.
“There would be no Playtone without Adam Schlesinger, without his ‘That Thing You Do!’ He was a One-der. Lost him to Covid-19. Terribly sad today,” the actor.
Schlesinger also wrote songs for title sequences for Netflix’s “To the Bone”, Warner Bros’ “Music & Lyrics”, 20th Century Fox’s “John Tucker Must Die” and “Me, Myself & Irene” and Universal’s “Josie and the Pussycats“.
The celebrated composer is also credited as a writer of songs for popular Amazon series “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel”, NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers”, the 2013 Emmy Awards, the 2012 Tony Awards, “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno”, “My Name Is Earl”, “One Tree Hill” and the 1997 Academy Awards.
A prolific name in Hollywood’s music entertainment side, Schlesinger co-wrote the music and lyrics for the 2008 Broadway musical “Cry Baby”, adapted from the John Waters movie that starred Johnny Depp.
Recently, he reunited with his “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” collaborator Rachel Bloom on the score for a forthcoming Broadway musical adaptation of the 1990s sitcom, “The Nanny”.
Besides Fountains of Wayne, Schlesinger also helped discover bands Ivy and Tinted Windows. He worked with Dashboard Confessional, The Monkees, They Might Be Giants and Robert Plant as a record producer.
Schlesinger was also nominated for a Golden Globe and many Emmys, Tonys and Grammys.
