Betty Comden

American songwriter, author and actress

Born: 3 May 1917 in New York City, NY, USA

Died: 23 November 2006 in the New York Presbyterian Hospital, Manhattan, NY, USA

She was one-half of the musical-comedy duo Comden and Green, Betty Comden provided lyrics, libretti, and screenplays to some of the most beloved and successful Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with [a=Adolph Green] lasted for six decades. She wrote the Broadway stage scores for "Wonderful Town" (which garnered a Tony award from the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing in 1953), "Peter Pan", and "Do Re Mi".

She charted as a songwriter ten times in the U.S. and U.K. between 1956 and 2011, all with Adolph Green & Jule Styne as co-writers. In the U.K., she reached #9 with "The Party's Over" by Lonnie Donegan in 1962. In the U.S., her highest charted song was "Dance Only with Me" by Perry Como in 1958; it reached #19. She also co-wrote "Just in Time" by Tony Bennett, which charted to #46 in 1956. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980.