Michel Legrand, French Oscar-winning composer, dies aged 86

French Oscar-winning composer and jazz pianist Michel Legrand has died aged 86.

Legrand, who was born into a family of musicians in Paris in 1932, was a composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist.

He wrote more than 200 film and television scores and won his first Oscar in 1968 for the song The Windmills of Your Mind from the film The Thomas Crown Affair. Further Oscars followed in 1971 and 1983 for the best original scores in films Summer of '42 and Yentl.

In the Sixties, with the emergence of French New Wave cinema, he began working with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy. With Demy, he made the landmark musical film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, in which all of the dialogue is sung. It is believed to mark the only instance in Oscar history in which a composer was nominated in all three music categories for the same film (best song, best original score, best musical adaptation).

During his career he also worked with Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Orson Welles, Jean Cocteau, Frank Sinatra and Edith Piaf.

Legrand played the Royal Albert Hall in September 2018. Reviewing the show for The Telegraph, Ivan Hewett noted that it was an evening of "pure escapism" and Legrand regaled the audience "with jazz piano riffs of amazing decisiveness and rippling virtuosity".

Many in the industry have paid tribute to the composer, including Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Legrand, who had been scheduled to hold concerts in Paris in April, died at his home in Paris early on Saturday 26 January. His wife, French actress Macha Meril, was at his side.