Lesley Gore

As a teenager, Lesley Gore wrote and sang a series of pop weepers; after her hits ended, she moved into acting and songwriting.

Gore was born Lesley Sue Goldstein on May 2, 1946, in Brooklyn .Gore's father, a successful swimsuit manufacturer, sent her to the Dwight Preparatory School for Girls in Englewood, New Jersey. After high school Gore continued her education, studying English and American literature at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, N.Y. She also worked in theater productions while she was in college, and later developed a nightclub act that she delivered to mixed reviews in New York and Los Angeles.

In her senior year she was discovered by Quincy Jones, who got her a record contract with Mercury Records and produced her records through 1967. As she was turning seventeen, they released her song "It's My Party," which went to #1 in June 1963.

By years end she had three more Top Five hits, Judy's Turn to Cry," "She's A Fool," and "You Don't Own Me" The later held an undeniably feminist viewpoint virtually never heard before on the pop chart. Subsequent hits included "That's the Way Boys Are," "Maybe I Know," and California Nights".

During this time, Gore attended Sarah Lawrence College, and she graduated in 1968 after her hits had stopped in 1967. She then moved to California where she worked with independent producer Bob Crewe on a series of unsuccessful records. She tried her hand at acting in films like girls on the Beach and Ski Party and television like Batman. Largely out of sight for a number of years Gore made some club appearances in 1970 and 1971, and in 1972 signed with the Motown subsidiary Mowest, but 1972's Someplace else sold poorly. In late, 1972, she signed to A&M Records where she was reunited with Quincy Jones for Love Me by Name. The album didn't sell well.

She played Catwoman's sidekick Pussycat on two episodes of the 1960s TV comedy "Batman.

Gore played piano and mandolin, and continued writing and recording music, reuniting in 1975 with producer Jones for an album “Immortality” that was well-received by those who tracked it down, although it never made the Billboard 200 Albums chart.

In 1980, Gore wrote the lyrics to the Oscar nominated "Out Here On My Own" from the Fame soundtrack, which featured music by her brother Michael. Gore continues to write and perform. In the late Eighties she recorded "Since I Don't Have You" b/w "It's Only Make Believe" with Lou Christie.

In the 1990s, Gore co-wrote "My Secret Love" for Allison Anders' film "Grace of My Heart," released in 1996. A couple of years later, she appeared in "Smokey Joe's Cafe" on Broadway. Gore had been working on a stage version of her life with playwright Mark Hampton when she died.

In 2005, she released "Ever Since," her first album in 30 years, but was sure to revisit older hits in front of fans. She officially came out to the public when she hosted several episodes of the PBS series, "In The Life," which dealt with gay and lesbian issues.

In the last few years, she performed at Feinstein's at the Loews Regency in New York and, along with Ronnie Spector and LaLa Brooks, headlined the "She's Got the Power" concert outdoors at Lincoln Center in 2012.

Gore died of lung cancer February 16, 2014 at New York University Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, according to her partner of 33 years, Lois Sasson.