Sammy Cahn - Honors, Awards and Legacy

Honors, Awards and Legacy

Over the course of his career, he was nominated for 23 Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and an Emmy Award. He also received a Grammy Award nomination, with Van Heusen, for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show for the film Robin and the 7 Hoods.

In 1988, the Sammy Awards, an annual award for movie songs and scores, was started in his honor. When notified by Roger Hall, Cahn said he was "flattered and honored" that these awards were named after him. He was chosen because he had received more Academy Award nominations than any other songwriter, and also because he received four Oscars for his song lyrics.

In 1993, taking up the sentiments expressed in the song, "High Hopes," the Cahn estate established the "High Hopes Fund" at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. The former Joslin patient and songwriter's goal was to provide hope and encouragement to kids with diabetes while supporting research into the causes of the disease.

The lyrics he wrote for Sinatra is the subject of a chapter in Gilbert Gigliotti's A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit, "Come Us on Equal Terms": The Whitmanesque Sinatra of Sammy Cahn," published by Greenwood Press in 2002.