Oscar-winning French composer Michel Legrand dies at 86

The acclaimed French composer Michel Legrand, who won three Oscars during a career spanning more than half a century, has died in Paris aged 86, his spokesperson said Saturday.

Legrand first won an Academy Award in 1969 for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from the film "The Thomas Crown Affair".

He would go on to win two more, for "Summer of '42" (1972) and "Yentl" (1984), along with five Grammys.

A jazz lover, Legrand wrote more than 200 film and TV scores in a glittering career that saw him collaborate with the likes of Orson Welles, Jean Cocteau, Frank Sinatra and Edith Piaf.

He is perhaps best remembered for working with French filmmaker Jacques Demy on the musicals "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964), "The Young Girls of Rochefort" (1967) and "Peau d'âne" (1970).

Legrand had been planning to give concerts in Paris in the spring, his spokesperson told AFP.