Lloyd-Webber, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron 1948-
English popular composer

Born in London, he was educated at Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford, and at the Royal College of Music, London. He met Tim Rice in 1965, and together they wrote a 'pop oratorio' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1968) which was extended and staged in 1973 and revived in 1991. Their greatest success was the 'rock opera' Jesus Christ Superstar (staged 1970, filmed 1973), the long-playing record of which achieved record-breaking sales. He composed the music for Jeeves (1975), Evita (1978), which was the basis for the 1996 Alan Parker film of the same name, Tell Me on a Sunday (1980) and Cats (1981). His most recent successes include The Phantom of the Opera (1986), based on the 1911 novel by Gaston Leroux, Aspects of Love (1989), based on the novella (1955) by David Garnett, and Sunset Boulevard (1993), based on the 1950 film directed by Billy Wilder. He was knighted in 1992 and made a life peer in 1997. His brother Julian (1951- ) is a cellist, and his father, Dr William Lloyd Webber (1914-82) was a notable organist, a choirmaster and director of the London College of Music from 1964 till his death.

Bibliography: Gerald Mantle, Andrew Lloyd Webber (1984)