Songwriter Joseph Brooks, who rose to fame after penning the No. 1 hit, 'You Light Up My Life,' was found dead yesterday (May 22) of an apparent suicide. He was 73. The New York City resident was discovered late Sunday afternoon on his living room couch with a plastic dry-cleaning bag around his head, a towel around his neck, and a hose attached to a helium tank inside the bag.
The father of two left a three-page suicide note detailing his various health issues. He had been awaiting trial on charges of 82 sex crimes, after allegedly luring women to his apartment under the guise of auditioning them for roles in upcoming films. In addition, his Upper East Side apartment was the cause of a recent lawsuit, with a former friend trying to seize the 15th floor co-op to recover more than three million dollars in debt that Brooks owed.
Neighbors report that Brooks frequently had young women visiting him, even after a stroke left him partially disabled in 2008. He sued a 22-year-old former fiancée two years ago, after allegedly spending more than two million dollars on her, before learning she was married. The last person known to see Brooks alive was a deli worker, Jamie Lee, who routinely sold him the Sunday newspaper. "He normally buys papers, but [yesterday he just bought orange juice," she reveals to the New York Daily News. "I thought that was unusual."
Brooks' 25-year-old son, Nicholas, is awaiting trial on murder, accused of strangling his former girlfriend, swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay, last year.
Neighbors report that Brooks frequently had young women visiting him, even after a stroke left him partially disabled in 2008. He sued a 22-year-old former fiancée two years ago, after allegedly spending more than two million dollars on her, before learning she was married. The last person known to see Brooks alive was a deli worker, Jamie Lee, who routinely sold him the Sunday newspaper. "He normally buys papers, but [yesterday he just bought orange juice," she reveals to the New York Daily News. "I thought that was unusual."
Brooks' 25-year-old son, Nicholas, is awaiting trial on murder, accused of strangling his former girlfriend, swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay, last year.
In the 1960s, Brooks composed advertising jingles for clients including Pepsi ("You've Got a Lot to Live") and Maxwell House ("Good to the Last Drop Feeling").
'You Light Up My Life' was featured on the soundtrack of a 1977 film by the same name, starring Didi Conn and Michael Zaslow. The song earned Brooks an Oscar for Best Original Song, as well as a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Debby Boone released the song as a single, which became the title track of her debut album, with Brooks producing the entire project. The song was later covered by more than a dozen artists, including LeAnn Rimes, Whitney Houston, Perry Como, Kenny Rogers and Lee Greenwood.
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