Rod McKuen, a prolific songwriter and poet, has died. He was 81.
McKuen who was recently hospitalized, died Thursday at a Beverly Hills rehabilitation center after suffering from pneumonia, according to friends and relatives.
Among McKuen’s compositions was the Oscar-nominated song “Jean” for the 1969 film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” McKuen’s music for the animated feature “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” was also nominated for an Oscar.
McKuen was born in Oakland in 1933 and wrote later of an unhappy childhood and the abuse he endured at the hands of his stepfather, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In the ’60s, McKuen moved to Paris and began writing poetry, ultimately publishing more than three dozen collections of poems and essays.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.
