Francis Lai

Francis Lai, French accordion player and composer (died 2018)

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Born: April 26, 1932
Died: November 7, 2018
Zodiac sign: Taurus
Birth year: 1932

About Francis Lai

Francis Albert Lai was a French composer, noted for his film scores. He won the 1970 Oscar for Best Music, Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film Love Story. The soundtrack album went to No. 2 in the Billboard album charts and the film's theme, "Where Do I Begin", was a hit single for Andy Williams. He also composed the music of A Man and a Woman, an international success that won the Palme d'Or, a few Academy Awards and Golden Globes. In Marseille he discovered jazz and met Claude Goaty, a singer of popular songs in the 1950s.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Francis Lai was born

Francis Lai was born in 1932. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1932

#1 song"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
Top movieGrand Hotel
Best-selling bookBrave New World – Aldous Huxley

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentBabe Ruth's "called shot" in the World Series
Top headlineFDR elected in a landslide during the Great Depression
Technology milestoneAmelia Earhart becomes first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
Defining fadMonopoly board game (unofficial versions)
Notable inventionPolaroid filters
World population2.14 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
U.S. population124.8M

1932 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Francis Lai's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1932	2026
Gas	$0.18	$3.45/gal
Average home	$5,000	$435,000
Average income	$2,600	$67,500
Movie ticket	$0.20	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	124.8M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.