Death
On the night of the Academy Awards, Ashman told Menken that they needed to have an important talk when they got back to New York. When they got back, he revealed to Menken that he was HIV positive. During the making of Beauty and The Beast, the Disney animators were told to go work with Ashman in New York and they didn't know that he was seriously ill. He grew weaker, but he remained productive during the production. On March 10, 1991, the Disney animators had their first screening for Beauty and The Beast and it was an enormous success. Afterward, they visited Howard in the hospital. He was 80 pounds and lost all of his sight. As they were telling him about the success, producer Don Hahn leaned over to Howard and said, "The film is going to be a great success. Who'd have thought it?", to which Ashman replied with "I would." Four days later, on March 14, Ashman died following complications from AIDS at the age of 40 in New York City. Beauty and the Beast is dedicated to him: "To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful. Howard Ashman 1950–1991."
Ashman and Menken had also written eleven songs intended for Aladdin, though only "Arabian Nights," "Friend Like Me" and "Prince Ali" were included in the finished film, for which Menken wrote several new songs with Tim Rice. Rice paid tribute to Ashman while accepting the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "A Whole New World" on March 29, 1993.
Ashman was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 2001. On the 2001 Special Edition DVD of Beauty and the Beast, on Disc 2, there is a short documentary entitled Howard Ashman: In Memoriam that features many people who worked on Beauty and the Beast who talk about Howard's involvement on the film and how his passing was truly a loss for them.
An album of Ashman singing his own work entitled Howard Sings Ashman was released on November 11, 2008, by PS Classics as part of the Library of Congress "Songwriter Series."
Ashman was survived by his life partner William Lauch, his sister Sarah Ashman-Gillespie, and his mother Shirley Gershman.
Read more about this topic: Howard Ashman
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