US songwriter Betty Comden dies at 89

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2006

NEW YORK (AFP) — Betty Comden, who helped write the lyrics to a number of hit musicals and co-wrote the screenplay to the hit "Singin' in the Rain," has died at the age of 89, US media reported. Comden was one half of Comden and Green, a professional partnership that began when she began working with Adolph Green in the late 1930s and spanned more than 60 years, also involving composers such as Leonard Bernstein and Andre Previn.

According to The New York Times, Comden died Wednesday of heart failure. Her lawyer was not immediately available for comment. Perhaps her biggest hit was 1952's "Singin' in the Rain", the song-and-dance favorite which starred Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. Among Comden's other credits were "Wonderful Town," "Bells Are Ringing" and "On the Town,"...