Don Black

Five James Bond titles carry Don Black's lyrics: Thunderball in 1965, Diamonds Are Forever in 1971 and The Man with the Golden Gun in 1974, all to John Barry's music and sung by Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Lulu; then Surrender for Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough in 1999, both written with David Arnold and the latter recorded by Garbage. Born Donald Blackstone in London in 1938, he worked as a song plugger and Tin Pan Alley lyricist before winning the Academy Award in 1966 for Born Free, again with Barry. In the theatre he is chiefly Andrew Lloyd Webber's lyricist — Tell Me on a Sunday, Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard, Stephen Ward — and he was appointed OBE in 1999 and CBE in 2024.