Musical composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim has died at the age of 91.
As the newspaper "New York Times" reported, citing Sondheim's lawyer, he died on Friday in his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, after celebrating Thanksgiving with friends the day before.
Sondheim was considered a Broadway legend, in 1957 he had his breakthrough in music theater when he wrote the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's world success "West Side Story".
In the course of his long career as a composer and lyricist, he worked on other musical successes such as "Sweeney Todd", "Gypsy" or "Sunday in the Park with George".
For his work he has received eight Grammy Awards, as well as Tony Awards, an Oscar and the Pulitzer Prize.
In 2015 he received the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, from then President Barack Obama.
"To put it simply: Stephen reinvented the American musical," Obama said at the time.