American songwriter Frank Loesser wrote the lyrics and music to Broadway hits Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He won Tony Awards for lyrics and music in both shows and shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Loesser was nominated five times for an Academy Award and won for “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Loesser sold the rights to the song to MGM who featured it twice in Neptune’s Daughter with a performance by Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams and a second by Red Skelton and Betty Garrett.
Loesser served in the Army Air Force in World War II and wrote lyrics for popular war songs like “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.”
Loesser died of lung cancer in 1969. He was 59.