Biography
Peter Allen, born Peter Richard Woolnough in 1944 in Tenterfield, Australia, performed in local pubs as a boy and formed the duo the Allen Brothers with Chris Bell as a teenager. Discovered by Judy Garland during a performance in Hong Kong, the duo toured with her, and in 1967 Allen married Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli; the marriage ended in divorce in 1974. In the 1970s he launched a solo career as a singer-songwriter known for flamboyant, dance-driven stage shows and hits such as 'I Go to Rio' and 'I Still Call Australia Home'. In 1982 he shared the Academy Award for Best Original Song with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Christopher Cross for 'Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)'. Allen died in San Diego in 1992 of an AIDS-related illness; his life and work were later dramatised in the 1998 musical 'The Boy from Oz'.
On Stagelog
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