Dorothy "Dory" Veronica Previn ( Langan; October 22, 1925 – February 14, 2012) was an American lyricist, singer-songwriter and poet. During the late 1950s and 1960s, Previn was a lyricist on songs intended for motion pictures and, with her then husband, André Previn, received several Academy Award nominations. In the 1970s, after their divorce, she released six albums of original songs and an acclaimed live album. Previn's lyrics from this period are characterized by their originality, irony and honesty in dealing with her troubled personal life as well as more generally about relationships, sexuality, religion and psychology. Until her death, she continued to work as a writer of song lyrics and prose. Biography Early years Previn was born in either Rahway or Woodbridge, New Jersey, and grew up in Woodbridge, the eldest daughter in a strict Catholic family of Irish origin. She had a troubled relationship with her father, especially during childhood. He had served in the First World War and been gassed, and experienced periods of depression and violent mood swings. He tended to alternately embrace and reject her, but supported her when she began to show talent for singing and dancing. His mental health deteriorated after the birth of a second daughter, culminating in a paranoid episode in which he boarded the family up in their home and held them at gunpoint for several months. Previn's childhood experiences, described in her autobiography Midnight Baby, had a profound effect on her later life and work. After high school, Previn attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts for a year before financial difficulties forced her to leave. She toured as a chorus-line dancer and singer and started to write songs. She later wrote, "I have been an actress, model, and chorus girl. I've worked at odd jobs—secretary, salesgirl, accounting in a filling station, waitress—anything to keep me going while I pursued my writing." At that time, she entered a brief first marriage that soon ended in divorce. Lyricist and marriage: 1958–1969 Through a chance contact with film producer Arthur Freed, she gained a job as a lyricist at MGM. There she met, and began collaborating with, composer André Previn. In 1958, as Dory Langdon, she recorded an album of her songs, The Leprechauns Are Upon Me, with André Previn and jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell accompanying her, for Verve Records. She married Previn in 1959. The couple collaborated on a number