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AboutLesley Sue Goldstein (May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015), known professionally as Lesley Gore, was an American singer and songwriter. At the age of 16, she recorded her first hit song "It's My Party", a US number one in 1963. She followed it up with ten further US Billboard top 40 hits including "Judy's Turn to Cry" and "You Don't Own Me".
Gore later worked as an actress and television personality. She composed songs with her brother Michael Gore for the 1980 film Fame, for which he won an Academy Award. She hosted several editions of the LGBT-oriented public television show, In the Life, on American TV in the 2000s.
Gore was born Lesley Sue Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York City, into a middle-class Jewish family. The daughter of Leo Goldstein and Ronny Gore, her father was the owner of Peter Pan, a children's swimwear and underwear manufacturer, and later became a leading brand licensing agent in the apparel industry. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, and attended the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood. She also attended Sarah Lawrence College.
Gore composed songs for the soundtrack of the 1980 film Fame, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here on My Own", written with her brother Michael. Michael won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the theme song of the same film. Gore played concerts and appeared on television throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Gore co-wrote a song, "My Secret Love", for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart. The film includes a subplot about a young singer named Kelly Porter, who is based in part on Gore and is played by Bridget Fonda. The character, who is a closeted lesbian, performs "My Secret Love" in the film.
In 2005, Gore recorded Ever Since (her first album of new material since Love Me By Name in 1976), with producer/songwriter Blake Morgan, with the label Engine Company Records. The album received favorable reviews from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and other national press. The album also included a revised version of "You Don't Own Me", about which the New York Daily News wrote: "In Lesley Gore's new version of 'You Don't Own Me'—cut more than 40 years after its initial recording—she lends a pop classic new life." Gore commented: "Without the loud backing track, I could wring more meaning from the lyric". And: "It's a song that takes on new meaning every time you sing it."
Beginning in 2003, Gore hosted several editions of the PBS television series In the Life, which focused on LGBTQ+ issues. In a 2005 interview with AfterEllen, she stated she was a lesbian and had been in a relationship with luxury jewelry designer Lois Sasson since 1982. She had known about her attraction to women from the time she was 20 and stated that although the music business was "totally homophobic", she never felt she had to pretend she was straight. "I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do," she said. "I didn't avoid anything, I didn't put it in anybody's face."
Gore had been working on a memoir and a Broadway show based on her life when she died of lung cancer (even though she never smoked) on February 16, 2015, at the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 68. At the time of her death, Gore and Sasson had been together for 33 years.
Her New York Times obituary stated, "with songs like 'It's My Party,' 'Judy's Turn to Cry', and the indelibly defiant 1964 single 'You Don't Own Me' — all recorded before she was 18 — Gore made herself the voice of teenaged girls aggrieved by fickle boyfriends, moving quickly from tearful self-pity to fierce self-assertion."
After conquering the music charts, Gore branched out and began acting. Her film appearances included "Ski Party" and "Girls on the Beach" as well a performance in the concert film "The T.A.M.I. Show." Her most notable acting role was that of 'Pussycat' – Catwoman's sidekick on the 1960s Batman television series – where she introduced the single "California Nights."
Gore later worked as an actress and television personality. She composed songs with her brother Michael Gore for the 1980 film Fame, for which he won an Academy Award. She hosted several editions of the LGBT-oriented public television show, In the Life, on American TV in the 2000s.
Gore was born Lesley Sue Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York City, into a middle-class Jewish family. The daughter of Leo Goldstein and Ronny Gore, her father was the owner of Peter Pan, a children's swimwear and underwear manufacturer, and later became a leading brand licensing agent in the apparel industry. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, and attended the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood. She also attended Sarah Lawrence College.
Gore composed songs for the soundtrack of the 1980 film Fame, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here on My Own", written with her brother Michael. Michael won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the theme song of the same film. Gore played concerts and appeared on television throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Gore co-wrote a song, "My Secret Love", for the 1996 film Grace of My Heart. The film includes a subplot about a young singer named Kelly Porter, who is based in part on Gore and is played by Bridget Fonda. The character, who is a closeted lesbian, performs "My Secret Love" in the film.
In 2005, Gore recorded Ever Since (her first album of new material since Love Me By Name in 1976), with producer/songwriter Blake Morgan, with the label Engine Company Records. The album received favorable reviews from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and other national press. The album also included a revised version of "You Don't Own Me", about which the New York Daily News wrote: "In Lesley Gore's new version of 'You Don't Own Me'—cut more than 40 years after its initial recording—she lends a pop classic new life." Gore commented: "Without the loud backing track, I could wring more meaning from the lyric". And: "It's a song that takes on new meaning every time you sing it."
Beginning in 2003, Gore hosted several editions of the PBS television series In the Life, which focused on LGBTQ+ issues. In a 2005 interview with AfterEllen, she stated she was a lesbian and had been in a relationship with luxury jewelry designer Lois Sasson since 1982. She had known about her attraction to women from the time she was 20 and stated that although the music business was "totally homophobic", she never felt she had to pretend she was straight. "I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do," she said. "I didn't avoid anything, I didn't put it in anybody's face."
Gore had been working on a memoir and a Broadway show based on her life when she died of lung cancer (even though she never smoked) on February 16, 2015, at the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 68. At the time of her death, Gore and Sasson had been together for 33 years.
Her New York Times obituary stated, "with songs like 'It's My Party,' 'Judy's Turn to Cry', and the indelibly defiant 1964 single 'You Don't Own Me' — all recorded before she was 18 — Gore made herself the voice of teenaged girls aggrieved by fickle boyfriends, moving quickly from tearful self-pity to fierce self-assertion."
After conquering the music charts, Gore branched out and began acting. Her film appearances included "Ski Party" and "Girls on the Beach" as well a performance in the concert film "The T.A.M.I. Show." Her most notable acting role was that of 'Pussycat' – Catwoman's sidekick on the 1960s Batman television series – where she introduced the single "California Nights."
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