Hitchcock's Composers
Composers, arrangers, orchestrators and conductors who created the musical scores for feature films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
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- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock (born 1892). Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.
Hitchcock entering the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer. It was there that he met Alma Reville, though they never really spoke to each other. It was only after the director for Always Tell Your Wife (1923) fell ill and Hitchcock was named director to complete the film that he and Reville began to collaborate. Hitchcock had his first real crack at directing a film, start to finish, in 1923 when he was hired to direct the film Number 13 (1922), though the production wasn't completed due to the studio's closure (he later remade it as a sound film). Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed The Pleasure Garden (1925), a British/German production, which was very popular. Hitchcock made his first trademark film in 1927, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) . In the same year, on the 2nd of December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child, Patricia Hitchcock who was born on July 7th, 1928. His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of which also gained him fame in the USA.
In 1940, the Hitchcock family moved to Hollywood, where the producer David O. Selznick had hired him to direct an adaptation of 'Daphne du Maurier''s Rebecca (1940). After Saboteur (1942), as his fame as a director grew, film companies began to refer to his films as 'Alfred Hitchcock's', for example Alfred Hitcock's Psycho (1960), Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976), Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972).
Hitchcock was a master of pure cinema who almost never failed to reconcile aesthetics with the demands of the box-office.
During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralyzing stroke which made her unable to walk very well. On March 7, 1979, Hitchcock was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award, where he said: "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen and their names are Alma Reville." By this time, he was ill with angina and his kidneys had already started to fail. He had started to write a screenplay with Ernest Lehman called The Short Night but he fired Lehman and hired young writer David Freeman to rewrite the script. Due to Hitchcock's failing health the film was never made, but Freeman published the script after Hitchcock's death. In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure. His funeral was held in the Church of Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Father Thomas Sullivan led the service with over 600 people attended the service, among them were Mel Brooks (director of High Anxiety (1977), a comedy tribute to Hitchcock and his films), Louis Jourdan, Karl Malden, Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh and François Truffaut.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Jimmy Campbell was born on 5 April 1903 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Snowpiercer (2013), Ready Player One (2018) and Bad Times at the El Royale (2018). He was married to Betty Balfour. He died in 1967 in London, England, UK.Blackmail (1929)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Reginald Connelly was born in 1895 in England, UK. Reginald was a composer, known for Snowpiercer (2013), Ready Player One (2018) and Bad Times at the El Royale (2018). Reginald died on 23 September 1963 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK.Blackmail (1929)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Hubert Bath was born on 6 November 1883 in Barnstaple, Devon, England, UK. He was a composer, known for The 39 Steps (1935), Blackmail (1929) and Chu Chin Chow (1934). He was married to Dorothy M. Giffin. He died on 24 April 1945 in Harefield, Middlesex, England, UK.Blackmail (1929)
Strauss' Great Waltz (1934)
The 39 Steps (1935)
Secret Agent (1936)
Sabotage (1936)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
John Reynders was born on 9 March 1888 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK. He was a composer and actor, known for Blackmail (1929), Der Weg zur Schande (1930) and Murder! (1930). He died on 6 January 1953 in Barnet, Middlesex, England, UK.Blackmail (1929)
Murder! (1930)
Rich and Strange (1931)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Adolph Hallis was born in 1896 in South Africa. He was a composer, known for Number 17 (1932) and East of Shanghai (1931). He died in 1987 in South Africa.Rich and Strange (1931)
Number 17 (1932)- Music Department
Julius Bittner was born on 9 April 1874 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He is known for Strauss' Great Waltz (1934). He was married to Emilie Werner. He died on 10 January 1939 in Vienna, Austria.Strauss' Great Waltz (1934)- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was the son of a well-known music critic. A child prodigy, he accompanied his father in playing four-handed piano arrangements by the age of five. By the age of eleven he drew his first plaudits from enthusiastic Viennese audiences (including the emperor Franz Josef) with his ballet-pantomime "Der Schneeman" (The Snow Man). Two years later, he wrote a piano sonata which was performed by Artur Schnabel. Korngold composed his first orchestral piece at 14 and attracted the attention of Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and many other prominent composers and conductors. In 1920, he conducted the Hamburg Opera performing his seminal work "Die tote Stadt" which became a huge international success. Thus embarked upon a promising career as a serious composer, Korngold was invited to the United States by Max Reinhardt to score A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) -- and decided to stay. He was certainly grateful for the chance to escape Adolf Hitler's annexation of Austria. In 1943, Korngold became an American citizen.
Korngold was the first composer of international renown to be signed by Hollywood despite having no prior experience with film music. His approach to the medium was predominantly theatrical and operatic (he once described Tosca as "the best film score ever written"). A master of technique, credited with "inventing" the syntax of orchestral film music, he composed at the piano with projectionists running reels at his behest. Often, he worked in conjunction with the orchestra of Hugo Friedhofer who became his closest collaborator. Under contract to Warner Brothers from 1935 to 1947, Korngold picked up Academy Awards for Anthony Adverse (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). His stirring and string-laden scores were ideally suited for such high-octane Errol Flynn swashbucklers as Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940). In the final analysis, other notable film composers, including even the great Max Steiner, admitted to being influenced by Korngold's work. His 1937 violin concerto which used various elements from his film music became one of the most prolifically performed classical concerts of the 20th century.
Korngold would have longed to resume his career as a serious composer. However, after the war ended, he found that the world of serious music had passed him by. In 1949, he returned to Vienna with his wife but found the city in ruins and much changed. A year later, disillusioned, he moved back to his home in the Toluca Lake district in North Hollywood. During the final ten years of his life he composed almost exclusively for concert halls. In 1956, he suffered a stroke which left him partially paralysed and he died a year later at the age of 60 from a heart attack.Strauss' Great Waltz (1934)- Music Department
- Composer
- Additional Crew
Louis Levy was born on 20 November 1894 in London, England, UK. He was a composer, known for The 39 Steps (1935), The Lady Vanishes (1938) and The Good Companions (1933). He died on 18 August 1957 in Slough, Berkshire, England, UK.Strauss' Great Waltz (1934)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
The 39 Steps (1935)
Secret Agent (1936)
Sabotage (1936)
Young and Innocent (1937)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Under Capricorn (1949)
Stage Fright (1950)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Johann Strauss Sr. was born on March 14, 1804, in Vienna, Austria. His father owned a small inn on the river Danube, and his mother was innkeeper, she died when he was seven years old. Strauss studied music with Johann Polichansky and also was an apprentice of a bookbinder. He joined a string quartet that grew into a small orchestra playing Viennese waltzes and German dances. Strauss became the leader of the orchestra, then he eventually became conductor of another orchestra. In 1825 he formed his own orchestra and began writing waltzes and other dancing music for his band.
In 1825 Strauss Sr. married Maria Ann Streim in the parish church of Liechtenthal in Vienna. They had three sons. Their elder son Johann Strauss became the most famous composer of waltzes and operettas. Their younger sons 'Josef Strauss' and Eduard Strauss deputized for their famous brother Johann Strauss when he was ailing. They continued the legacy of the Strauss Family Dynasty. In 1834 Strauss Sr. took on a mistress, named Emilie Trambusch, with whom he had eight children.
During the 1830's and 1840's Strauss Sr. became one of the most well known dance composers in Vienna. He wrote mostly waltzes, polkas, and marches, and also absorbed influences from his concert tours in other countries, where he picked up tunes of quadrille and gigue. Strauss Sr. toured with his band to France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, England and Scotland. His 1837 trip to France brought him highest international acclaim and proved his popularity with all audiences. Influential critic and composer Hector Berlioz promoted Strauss' popularity, helping his ambitious plan to perform his music in England for the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838. After that Strauss made many more concert tours to England with his orchestra.
In Vienna he established himself at the Sperl-Ballroom as the most popular dancing music composer. He became the first entertainer to start charging a fixed entrance fee to his concerts instead of an old practice of passing around a collection plate. In 1845 his son Johann Strauss debuted at the Dommayer's Casino and immediately became his competitor. Strauss Sr. was jealous about his son's talent and success and refused to play ever again at the Dommayer's Casino. In 1848 Strauss Sr. composed his most famous piece of music titled Radetzky March. It was dedicated to Austrian Field Marshal Radetzky and remained a popular march among the soldiers. The tradition among officers was to start clapping and stomping their feet when the chorus was played. This tradition is carried over today when Radetzky March is played in classical music venues in Vienna.
Strauss Sr. survived a divorce suit which was started by his wife Maria Anna in 1844, and allowed his sons to actively pursue an independent musical career. He died from scarlet fever on September 25, 1849, in Vienna, and was laid to rest in Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Ausria.Strauss' Great Waltz (1934)- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Johann Strauss (or Johann Strauss son), one of Austrian music's most famous names who studied music secretly against his father's will, later became the leader of his father's band and the indisputable "waltz king"; his waltz 'On the Beautiful Blue Danube', is the main theme in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
He was born Johann Sebastian Strauss on October 25, 1825, in Vienna, Austria. His father was the composer Johann Strauss Sr. Young Johann Strauss studied music secretly with his father's first violinist in the Strauss orchestra. He was reprimanded by his father who wanted him to be a banker. He continued studies of counterpoint, harmony, and violin, and concentrated fully on a career as a composer at the age of 17, when his father left the family.
Young Strauss made his debut at the Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing, the upscale district of Vienna. He became the rival of his father and gained popularity performing with his own orchestra. He took the side of revolutionaries when Vienna was racked up by the bourgeois revolution of 1848. He publicly played La Marseillaise and was hauled up by the Viennese authorities. That caused him denial of position of the Hofballmusikdirektor (Royal Ball Music Director). His career continued after the death of his father in 1849, which allowed the merger of two Strauss orchestras under the baton of Johann Strauss.
Strauss took his united orchestra on extensive tours in Austria, Germany, Poland, Italy, France, and Britain. Russian Tsar Alexander II commissioned Strauss to play at Pavlovsk, the royal suburb of St. Peterburg. There was the opening of a new railway and a landmark concert hall for Russian aristocracy. Strauss also accepted commissions to play for the Grand Prince Michael in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1853, when the commissions became too much to be handled, his mother persuaded younger brother Joseph to take over the helm of the Strauss Orchestra. Strauss eventually toured and concertized to an exhaustion and was confined to a sanatorium to recuperate as he was suffering from neuralgia. He was married three times and had complications with the Catholic Church which refused to grant him a divorce. Strauss had to change his religion and nationality in order to get married to the woman he loved; he became a citizen of German Duchy of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha. After that he became free to marry his third wife Adele, who encouraged his creative talent in his later years.
Johann Strauss was the most sought after composer of dance music in the second half of the 19th Century. His influence is felt in the music of the operetta maestro Franz Lehár and other composers. Among his admirers were Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and other prominent composers. Strauss wrote Die Fledermaus (The Bat), Der Zigeunerbaron (The Gypsy Baron), Wiener Blut (The Viennese Blood), and other popular operettas. His exquisite waltzes: The Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Wood, Man only Lives Once, On the Beautiful Blue Danube, and many other waltzes made Johann Strauss the indisputable "waltz king" of the 19th century. He died of pneumonia on June 3, 1899, in Vienna, and was laid to rest in the cemetery of Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Austria.Strauss' Great Waltz (1934)
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Suspicion (1941)
Torn Curtain (1966)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Arthur Benjamin was born on 19 September 1893 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was a composer, known for The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Clairvoyant (1935) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). He died on 9 April 1960 in London, England, UK.The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)- Composer
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Charles Williams was prolific and without equal in familiar popular music. His pedigree was impressive and his achievements remarkable, so who was this man who bequeathed so much enjoyment to the nation by writing the signature tunes for such programmes as "Dick Barton, Special Agent", "Jennings at School", "BBC TV Newsreel", and "Friday Night is Music Night"?
His real name was Isaac Cozerbreit and he was born to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland on 8th May, 1893, in Turner Street, East London. His father, a former travelling child singer whose repertoire ranged from synagogue liturgies to choral and operatic music, changed his professional name to Charles Williams, the same as a nationally-known choral conductor.
In 1913 Isaac legally adopted his father's new name and it was as Charles Williams that he signed up with the King's Royal Rifles during the Great War. It meant his violin-playing and general studies at the Royal Academy of Music were interrupted, but after hostilities ceased he resumed his career and joined the famous J.H. Squire Octet. Two years later, in 1920, he formed his own Charles Williams Octet. The tscene was set for greater things.
Versatility might have been a good middle name because Charles was just at home at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as he was in the theatre pit of the Empress cinema in Brixton. As Leader of the prestigious New Symphony Orchestra, he played under the baton of Sir Landon Ronald, Sir Thomas Beecham and Sir Edward Elgar, the latter presenting him with an autographed copy of his biography in recognition of valuable services rendered.
By 1923 Charles fancied having a go with the baton himself and took to freelance conducting with several different cinema orchestras performing for, and during the intervals between, silent films. After a residency at the New Gallery in Regent Street, he moved to the Davis Theatre in Croydon and so enjoyed the experience that in 1929 he collaborated with others to write the music for the first British sound film. Entitled Blackmail, it was the 10th movie to be directed by an up-and-coming young man called Alfred Hitchcock.
Over the next 20 years Charles Williams wrote a huge amount of film music, virtually none of which was publicly credited to him. This was not unusual, however, indeed all movie music up until about the Sixties - even that composed by such famous names as William Walton and Vaughan Williams - was invariably thrown away after the film was released. Like most early radio and television programmes, nobody ever envisaged any future interest. How wrong they were!
Williams's contribution to the large screen included further commissions from Alfred Hitchcock, the comedies, of Will Hay, and the 1937 version of The 39 Steps starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. Post-war he had a great hit with "The Dream of Olwen" from the film While I Live, Recorded by many artistes (including Rawicz and Landauer on Evergreen Melodies E56) this music became almost synonymous with his name and long outlasted the celluloid. Surprisingly, in 1960 his "Jealous Lover" was chosen as the theme for the American film The Apartment. Starring Jack Lemmon, it was a huge success and reached Number 1 in the charts over there!
The golden era of sound movies lasted until the late-Forties, and altogether Williams contributed music to more than 100 different films, including many for Gainsborough and Gaumont-British, whose Shepherds Bush premises later became the BBC Lime Grove studios after the independent film industry collapsed. This kept him busy but occupied only a small fraction of his eventful career.
From the late-Thirties onwards the demands from Cinema Newsreels prompted the big London publishers to set up Recorded Music Libraries. The pioneers included de Wolfe, Boosey & Hawkes, and Bosworth, followed by Paxton, Keith Prowse and the most important of them all, Chappell, who had established the original 1916 Queen's Hall Light Orchestra (QHLO), to promote their own music in live concerts. Although this ceased with the birth of radio in the mid-Twenties, the New QHLO was now established to provide "mood" music for the infant Chappell Recorded Library.
Around this time, because they would not allow him to compose as well as conduct, Charles Williams turned down an offer from Boosey and Hawkes to lead a similar recording orchestra. It turned out to be Chappell's good fortune because in 1942 they invited him take charge of their New QHLO. As a result, the war years saw some marvellous 78 rpm background Light Music recordings and it was not long before the public wanted to hear more of the tunes and less of the programmes.
This was hardly surprising because patriotism was at its height and the melodies flowed quickly and fluently from Williams's musical quill. Titles such as "Convoy Attack", "Naval Action", "Sons of the Air", "Desert Warfare", "Engine Room" "War in the Jungle", "Searchlight", "Resistance" and "Commandos" all speak for themselves. They were miniature masterpieces which kept the patriotic musical flame alive. Not all the music was dramatic, however, and many quiet, reflective works also emerged, none more so than "The Young Ballerina", famous as the background music to the television interlude called "The Potter's Wheel".
Other famous pieces included "Voice of London", (signature tune of the QHLO), "The Old Clockmaker" which introduced "Jennings at School", "Girls In Grey" (a tribute to the Women's Junior Air Corps) which jauntily serenaded the airwaves circling round the mast of Alexandra Palace at the start of each "BBC Television Newsreel", and "A Quiet Stroll", a delightful signature tune to the early morning "Farming" program. "Rhythm on Rails" introduced "Morning Music", "High Adventure" preceded the long-running "Friday Night Is Music Night", and many others were heard at the cinema on "Pathe News".
By all accounts Williams was a real gentleman and extremely popular with his fellow musicians whom he inspired to great heights. This probably explains why he was never short of people to record on Saturday mornings at the EMI studios in Abbey Road.
Realising the commercial potential of his music, in 1946 he resigned as conductor, composer and arranger for the QHLO (the prefix "New" having by now been dropped) and went freelance He was succeeded firstly by Robert Farnon (see Evergreen Spring 2002), and later by Sidney Torch, both of whom carried on his pioneering work. Charles, meanwhile, established his own Concert Orchestra drawn from the same brilliant instrumentalists as the QHLO, broadcasting several times a week on BBC radio.
Farnon and Torch also later operated independently with identities cunningly disguised for copyright purposes, e.g. the elusive Ole Jensen and the Melodi Light Orchestra which were pseudonyms for Robert Farnon and others. It was a golden era of melody and all three men broadcast regularly on the radio. However, it all came to an end during the early-Sixties when a routine supply of mood music was no longer required - but what a recorded legacy they left behind.
Much of Williams's music was not intended for the general public to buy but everything that did appear on commercial Columbia 78 rpm records was eagerly snapped up. Mention "Dick Barton" to anyone over 60 and they will immediately think of the breathtaking signature tune, "Devil's Galop" (only one "l" in Galop which is a dance not a horse race!). It is a fast and energetic tune but in order to further magnify the suspense, the BBC sound engineers played it even faster, usually preceded at the end by a breathless Dick Barton gasping something like "Look out Snowy, they're getting away!"
Sadly, alcoholism was a disease which he constantly battled against during the latter stages of his life and his awareness of the problem led to him declining an honorary Doctor of Music degree offered by Oxford University. He no longer considered himself worthy of the award nor trusted himself to attend such an important ceremony. Given his brilliant musical pedigree and influence on his many peers, this was nothing short of a personal tragedy.
After living much of his life in Hampstead, West London, Charles retired with his wife to Findon, on the South Downs near Worthing in West Sussex. He died there on 7th September, 1978, aged 85, a largely forgotten figure because Light Music had gone out of fashion. However, a recent upsurge of interest in our great British musical heritage has brought about a much-needed reappraisal of this truly great composer.The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
The 39 Steps (1935)
The Lady Vanishes (1938)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Jack Beaver was born on 27 March 1900 in Clapham, London, England, UK. He was a composer, known for The Savages (2007), Wings Over Africa (1936) and Baroud (1932). He died on 10 September 1963 in Battersea, London, England, UK.The 39 Steps (1935)
Sabotage (1936)
Young and Innocent (1937)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
John Greenwood was born on 26 June 1889 in Kensington, London, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Woman of Dolwyn (1949), 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941) and Blackout (1940). He died on 15 April 1975 in Ditchling, East Sussex, England, UK.Secret Agent (1936)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Cecil Milner was born on 25 April 1905 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK. Cecil was a composer, known for Flottans muntergökar (1955), Preacher (2016) and It's a Grand Life (1953). Cecil died in November 1989 in England, UK.The Lady Vanishes (1938)- Writer
- Composer
Eric Fenby was born on 22 April 1906 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was a writer and composer, known for Omnibus (1967), Jamaica Inn (1939) and The Russell Harty Show (1974). He was married to Rowena Marshall. He died on 18 February 1997 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, UK.Jamaica Inn (1939)- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
Frederic Lewis was born in 1911 in London, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Jamaica Inn (1939), Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956) and Night Ambush (1957).Jamaica Inn (1939)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Franz Waxman (Wachsmann) pursued his dream of a career in music despite his family's misgivings. He worked for several years as a bank teller and paid for piano, harmony and composition lessons with his salary. He later moved to Berlin, where he continued his study and progress as a musician. He was able to support himself by playing and arranging for a popular German jazz band, Weintraub Syncopaters, in the late 1920s. Friedrich Hollaender, who had written some music for the Weintraubs, gave Waxman his first chance to move into movie scoring by hiring him to orchestrate and conduct Hollander's score (an arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) for the film that launched Marlene Dietrich, The Blue Angel (1930), directed by Josef von Sternberg. During 1932 Waxman, a Jew, joined many other Jews leaving Germany as the Nazi vise closed irrevocably on free society. He continued working with Germanfilm makers in France. Waxman did musical arranging and co-scoring, usually with Allan Gray, for approximately 15 European movies (his first independent score was in 1932). "The Blue Angel" producer Erich Pommer liked Waxman's work and offered him the composing job for Liliom (1934), directed by Fritz Lang in France.
Pommer decided to do Music in the Air (1934), a Jerome Kern musical, which meant going to Hollywood. Waxman was asked to come along to do the arranging. Needing no further reason to remain in Europe as the Nazi clouds darkened over it, Waxman began a new chapter in Hollywood film music history. He fortunately had some spare time to study with 'Arnold Schoenberg' after coming to Los Angeles, but he was soon talking to another new arrival, English director James Whale, about scoring Bride of Frankenstein (1935) for Universal. Waxman gave Whale what he wanted--an unusual score to fit the quirky, somewhat over-the-top content of the film (in fact, some of this score was later used in other films). As Waxman worked for Universal through the 1930s, he found himself in assembly-line mode, sometimes sharing scoring credit, and doing a lot of arranging stock music, which was usually used for the studio's many serials. This cranked up Waxman's yearly film output to around 20 or so through 1940.
By 1940, however, he was composing original music scores for other studios, beginning with the romantic music for Selznick Studios' Rebecca (1940)--the first Hollywood film for Alfred Hitchcock--and whimsical fare for MGM's The Philadelphia Story (1940). In 1941 he was doing more work for MGM with Honky Tonk (1941) and his second Hitchcock score, Suspicion (1941) from RKO. By 1943 and for the rest of the decade Waxman was usually scoring for Warner Bros., starting with Destination Tokyo (1943) and including music for some of that studio's classics of the period, such as To Have and Have Not (1944) with Humphrey Bogart. Through the decade he was nominated for an Oscar seven times for Best Film Score.
Waxman moved on to Paramount through the first half of the 1950s and garnered his two Oscars in back--to-back wins for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and A Place in the Sun (1951). This recognition finally underscored what was at the heart of all of Waxman's music: seriously focused attention on relaying a film's story through the content of the music. He would continue his scoring work for several studios into the 1960s, with three more nominations. Some of his music in the 1950s was recycled from his previous scores, as in the case of his third assignment for Hitchcock, Rear Window (1954) which contained used music. Waxman was also active in contemporary classical music. In 1947 he founded the Los Angeles International Music Festival and, as Music Director and Conductor, brought the premieres of works by world renowned contemporary composers to the Los Angeles cultural scene. Among his own output of such music was his popular "Carmen Fantasy" for violin and orchestra. Waxman also composed for TV's Gunsmoke (1955), The Fugitive (1963), Peyton Place (1964) (he had composed the music for the film the series was based on, Peyton Place (1957)) and others. Waxman died relatively young, but because of his steady output, only fellow emigrant Max Steiner (who was nearly 20 years older and whose output entailed more than 200 arrangements of stock music, rather than original scores) was a more prolific early Hollywood composer.Rebecca (1940)
Suspicion (1941)
The Paradine Case (1947)
Rear Window (1954)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Composer, songwriter and conductor, a music student of Edward Kilenyi and Max Steiner. He was under contract to David O. Selznick for seven years, and director of music for Goldwyn Productions for three years. He also worked for RKO. Joining ASCAP in 1951, his other popular-song compositions include "Passion Tango," "The Bat," "Hong Kong Affair," "What Would I Do Without You?," "What's the Use of Crying?," "Heart of Gold," "From the Earth to the Moon," and "Appointment in Honduras."Rebecca (1940)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Composer, arranger, musician and conductor Robert Russell Bennett studied piano with his mother and other instruments with his bandmaster father, and also with Carl Busch and Nadia Boulanger (honorary DHL, Franklin & Marshall College and Guggenheim fellowships). He began conducting at 11, was organist at a Kansas City theatre and a violinist and violist with string ensembles. He came to New York in 1916 and joined G. Schirmer. In World War I he conducted army bands, and in 1922 he became an arranger for Broadway musicals; his productions included "Rose-Marie", "Sunny", "The Band Wagon", "Of Thee I Sing", "The Cat and the Fiddle", "Face the Music", "Show Boat", "Oklahoma!", "Kiss Me, Kate", "South Pacific", "The King and I", "The Sound of Music", "My Fair Lady", and "Camelot". He was affiliated with NBC's Project Twenty (1954) since 1954. He joined ASCAP in 1935 and was the former president of the NAACC. His compositions include "Abraham Lincoln, Sights and Sounds (RCA Victor awards)", the opera "Maria Malibran", "Hollywood (on a League of Composers commission)", "8 Etudes for Symphony Orchestra (on a CBS commission)", "Charleston Rhapsody", "Concerto Grosso", "Stephen Foster", "Armed Forces Salute", "Symphonic Songs for Band", "Suite of Old American Dances", "Song Sonata for Violin, Piano", "Organ Sonata", "Hexapoda", "4 Freedoms Symphony", "Celebration", "Symphonic Story of Jerome Kern", "He is Risen (Emmy award)", "The Enchanted Kiss" and "An Hour of Delusion (1-act operas)", "Suite for Band Track Meet", and "Commemmoration Symphony".Rebecca (1940)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Hugo Friedhofer -- how many times have you seen that name in the credits of 1930s and '40s movies for "orchestration" or "musical arranger" and thought -- Gee, what a busy guy! He was, and, ironically, much of that work went uncredited. He is not usually mentioned with the great film composers of early Hollywood, but he was very much an equal and as prolific once he received the opportunities to compose as well. Friedhofer began studying the cello at age 13. In 1917, he dropped out of high school in support of a teacher who had been fired for radical and anti-war beliefs. He worked as a cellist for the People's Symphony Orchestra in San Francisco (always a liberal kind of place). He married quite young at 19 and had a child by the age of 22. He quickly put his music expertise to a working life by playing in theater orchestras and accompanying silent films and stage shows between features. He also started writing arrangements of music and worked at the Granada Theater (became the Paramount in 1931), with the opportunity to write some incidental music.
Friedhofer came to Los Angeles in the later 1920s and became a friend of the violinist George Lipschultz, who just happened to be the musical director at Twentieth Century Fox. It was 1929, and Lipschultz asked him to fill in a musician spot for film music recording at a small studio. That was the beginning of Friedhofer's career in films. When this small studio was taken over by Fox, he and other musicians were on the street. But he was brought to the notice of Erich Korngold, a relatively new film composer at Warner Bros. where Max Steiner was king. Friedhofer was hired by Warner Bros soon after to arrange scores for musicals and orchestrate scores-mostly for these two composers. Including orchestrating all of Korngold's movie scores and fifty of Steiner's, Friedhofer would orchestrate or musically direct 105 films into the mid 1950s during his career.
But he was already doing significant film composing as well from 1930 along with incidental and stock music for several studios before his stay at Warner. Friedhofer's developing style was in the romantic vein of his contemporaries. He studied composition with Ernst Toch after aiding the composer with contributions to Peter Ibbetson (1935) at Paramount. With the move to Warner, Friedhofer's problem became being just too valuable as an orchestrator and musical director for Warner to free him for composing assignments until the late 1930s. With tight budgets and the need for musical managers to wear several hats, Friedhofer's legendary efficiency was hard to give up. His first full film score was for Samuel Goldwyn's The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938) after being recommended by another film composer great Alfred Newman. His first for Warner's was The Oklahoma Kid (1939) (with James Cagney debuting as a cowboy!). He did not get credit for this nor for The Mark of Zorro (1940) (co-work with Newman) and Santa Fe Trail (1940) both in 1940. Into and after the war years Friedhofer was very busy -- but still not getting the composing credit due -- as for Gilda (1946). All told, he was not credited as composer for some 120 films.
Friedhofer broke from the confines of Warner Bros. finally in 1946 to freelance and received the grand prize right off. Again, it was Newman who recommended him for scoring Goldwyn's wonderful post-war drama of adjustment The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Friedhofer showed his power as composer with a score that engaged the story at every turn and most deservedly won the Oscar for Best Score. Other memorable credited scores included such classics as: the gripping music for Lifeboat (1944), directed by Alfred Hitchcock; the delightful Christmas strings score of The Bishop's Wife (1947); and the soaring music for 'Ingrid Bergman' in Joan of Arc (1948).
Though he continued in demand, much of Friedhofer's scoring output through the 1950s went to films mostly relegated to Saturday mornings these days, but there were notables, as the 1957 duo An Affair to Remember (1957) and the well-received The Sun Also Rises (1957). And the next year came the engaging and thought-provoking The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) (a fine performance by John Wayne) under the always versatile direction of John Huston. He also did some TV episodic and mini-movie music through the 1960s in addition to more films.
Friedhofer had all the qualities of an accomplished, indeed, incisive and intuitive film composer -- proved with a total of eight Oscar nominations -- and yet he was his own worst enemy. Anxieties about his abilities brought self-criticism and doubts that boiled out in a misanthropic view of the world in general that no amount of praise from public or friends could dislodge. At the least he should have believed that he had succeeded in grand style -- with nearly 250 pieces of screen music as a realistic basis for affirmation.Rebecca (1940)
Lifeboat (1944)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Paul Marquardt was born on 13 January 1889 in Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt [now Thuringia], Germany. He was a composer and actor, known for The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Big Wheel (1949) and A Day at the Races (1937). He died on 30 October 1960 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Rebecca (1940)
I Confess (1953)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Joseph Nussbaum was known for orchestrating the Academy Award-winning movies Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, Meet Me in St. Louis and Anchor's Away. He was born in London, England; died in Hollywood and is buried in Mt. Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
Starting in the mid-30s in Hollywood, Nussbaum composed and arranged throughout a prolific and eclectic movie and television career until his early death at age 61. His work is extremely varied, ranging from James A FitzPatrick travelogues to MGM musicals. Nussbaum worked for most of the major studios and orchestrated movies for Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick, among others. He collaborated extensively with composer Rudolf Friml, who called on Nussbaum for virtually all of his works. In 1938, Nussbaum was one of the founding members of ASMAC, the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers.
Nussbaum was classically trained. In 1910 at the remarkable age of 13, he graduated from the London Academy of Music before immigrating alone to the US at 16. After serving in the US Army in WWI, Nussbaum began a composing and arranging career in New York City. In the 1920s he composed a number of nationally-popular music pieces, including foxtrots like "A Fascinatin' Vamp" and "Chinese Moon." He orchestrated for Paul Whiteman, and a composition by Nussbaum and W.C. Handy, "The Evolution of the Blues," shared the program the night Whiteman and George Gershwin debuted "Rhapsody in Blue." While in New York City Nussbaum mainly composed and arranged theatrical works, including many for producer Billy Rose. Rose successfully encouraged Nussbaum to move on to movie music in Hollywood.
Nussbaum's career spanned much of the "golden age" of Hollywood. The listing of his large and diverse output reveals an unpretentious yet impressive career in making some of Hollywood's best movies better through music.Rebecca (1940)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Leonid Raab was born on 17 April 1900 in Tiraspol, Russia. He was a composer, known for Witness for the Prosecution (1957), The Unsuspected (1947) and Objective, Burma! (1945). He died on 16 September 1968 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Rebecca (1940)
Suspicion (1941)
The Paradine Case (1947)
Rear Window (1954)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Alfred Newman is an American composer, arranger, and conductor of film music.
From his start as a music prodigy, he came to be regarded as a respected figure in the history of film music. He won nine Academy Awards and was nominated 45 times, contributing to the Newmans being the most nominated Academy Award extended family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories.
In a career spanning more than four decades, Newman composed the scores for over 200 motion pictures. Some of his most famous scores include All About Eve (1950), Anastasia (1956), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Song of Bernadette (1943), Captain from Castile (1947), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), How the West Was Won (1962), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and his final score, Airport (1970), all of which were nominated for or won Academy Awards. He is perhaps best known for composing the fanfare which accompanies the studio logo at the beginning of 20th Century Fox's productions.
Newman was highly regarded as a conductor, and arranged and conducted many scores by other composers, including George Gershwin, Charles Chaplin, and Irving Berlin. He also conducted the music for many film adaptations of Broadway musicals (having worked on Broadway for ten years before coming to Hollywood), as well as many original Hollywood musicals.
He was among the first musicians to compose and conduct original music during Hollywood's Golden Age of movies, later becoming a respected and powerful music director in the history of Hollywood.Foreign Correspondent (1940)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Prolific screen composer, arranger, and conductor, educated at Juillard and the Academie fur Musik in Vienna. He played in night clubs in Vienna and Munich from 1923 to 1926, then was an opera coach in Munich, 1926-1927. In 1927 he conducted for NBC, and then became music director for WGY in Schenectady, New York. In 1933, he departed for Hollywood and joined ASCAP in 1944.Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Rope (1948)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Edward B. Powell was born on 5 December 1909 in Carroll County, Illinois, USA. He was a composer, known for Modern Times (1936), The King and I (1956) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). He died on 28 February 1984 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Torn Curtain (1966)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Gene Rose was born on 19 July 1897. She was a composer, known for Irene (1940), The Dolly Sisters (1945) and Rookies on Parade (1941). She died on 11 June 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Foreign Correspondent (1940)- Music Department
- Composer
- Additional Crew
Conrad Salinger was born on 30 August 1901 in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA. He was a composer, known for An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952) and Funny Face (1957). He died on 17 June 1962 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.Foreign Correspondent (1940)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
The prolific composer and songwriter Edward Ward gained his musical qualifications at the Beethoven Conservatory in his hometown of St.Louis. He worked for many years in Hollywood, often writing scores for, or orchestrating, films involving fantasy or horror themes. Ward was at MGM from 1935 to 1940, United Artists from 1940 to 1943 and Universal from 1943 to 1945. His best-known work was on Phantom of the Opera (1943), the last of his seven Oscar nominated scores. His most popular songs include "Always and Always" and the melodic "Lullaby of the Bells" (from 'Phantom of the Opera'). Ward also conducted for the stage, notably on Broadway for "The Red Mill" (during its long run from October 1945 to January 1947) and for the London revue "Clowns in Clover". He was latterly employed in an executive position in Hollywood.Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)- Music Department
- Composer
- Art Director
Trained in classical music at Columbia University, Webb worked on Broadway by the time he was in his mid-20's, not only composing incidental music, but co-writing original plays with his older brother, the director Kenneth S. Webb. By 1923, he worked as conductor/arranger on hit shows like "Music Box Revue" and "Stepping Stones". Two years later, a collaboration with his illustrious peer Max Steiner led to a lasting friendship, as well as (by his own admission) profoundly influencing his own future career as a composer. At the end of the decade, Steiner, then head of the music department at RKO, persuaded Webb to accept an assignment in Hollywood, scoring the musical Rio Rita (1929).
Steiner remained in charge until his departure in 1935, when Webb effectively took his place, remaining a fixture at RKO until 1955. He often worked in conjunction with Bernard Herrmann and C. Bakaleinikoff, supervising, conducting and composing scores for literally hundreds of films. As a composer, his style was somewhat akin to that of Herbert Stothart, in that it was more subtle, less overtly dramatic, yet still perfectly integrated with the action, or imperceptibly underscoring the dialogue. A good example is the romantic violin-laden score for the sentimental drama The Enchanted Cottage (1945). The piano concerto from this film was performed later that year at the Hollywood Bowl.
Better still, were his understated, eerily effective horror themes, setting the mood for the films of Val Lewton, of which Cat People (1942) and The Body Snatcher (1945) are absolute standouts. Webb's other noteworthy contribution was in the field of thrillers and films noir, notably The Spiral Staircase (1946), Notorious (1946) and Out of the Past (1947). After RKO wound down, Webb free-lanced for several years, working variously at Warners, Paramount and for John Wayne's Batjac Productions. Though his entire collection of manuscripts was sadly lost in a house fire, copies of his scores from the RKO vaults have been preserved at UCLA.Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
Suspicion (1941)
Notorious (1946)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
The author of the textbook "F.Skinner's Simplified Method for Modern Arranging" (published 1934) began his musical career as a pianist in vaudeville alongside his brother Carl. He then became a noted arranger for New York dance orchestras in the 1930's and was briefly active in the field of music publishing. Skinner's debut in Hollywood was as arranger for MGM's The Great Ziegfeld (1936). After completing work on the picture, he went on to spend the remainder of his lengthy career as composer/orchestrator for Universal (1938-1966) under the aegis of department head Joseph Gershenson. Skinner became best known for his horror film scores, but he was immensely prolific and versatile, handling all manner of subjects (albeit, the vast majority of his films were second features). He often worked in collaboration with the Austrian-born composer Hans J. Salter.
Skinner's best-known film compositions include the dramatic main theme for Universal's "Sherlock Holmes" series, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce; his classic horror score for Son of Frankenstein (1939); his gentle, romantic themes for Written on the Wind (1956), Imitation of Life (1959) and Back Street (1961); and his effective, haunting arrangement of the American folk song "Oh Shenandoah", which is featured throughout the sprawling Civil War drama Shenandoah (1965). Skinner authored several more textbooks on orchestration theory. His manual "Underscore" (published 1950) was the first of its kind to detail techniques of orchestrating and composing for films.Saboteur (1942)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Charles Previn was born on 11 January 1888 in Brooklyn [now in New York City], New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for My Man Godfrey (1936), Saboteur (1942) and Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He died on 22 September 1973 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.Saboteur (1942)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)- Music Department
- Composer
- Producer
Dimitri Tiomkin was a Russian Jewish composer who emigrated to America and became one of the most distinguished and best-loved music writers of Hollywood. He won a hallowed place in the pantheon of the most successful and productive composers in American film history, earning himself four Oscars and sixteen Academy Awards nominations. He was born Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin on May 10, 1894, in Kremenchug, Russia. His mother, Marie (nee Tartakovsky), was a Russian pianist and teacher. His father, Zinovi Tiomkin, was a renowned medical doctor. His uncle, rabbi Vladimir Tiomkin, was the first President of the World Zionist Union. Young Dimitri began his music studies under the tutelage of his mother. Then, at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he studied piano under Felix Blumenfeld and Isabelle Vengerova. He also studied composition under the conservatory's director, Aleksandr Glazunov, who appreciated Tiomkin's talent and hired him as a piano tutor for his niece. Soon Dimitri appeared on Russian stages as a child pianist prodigy and continued to develop into a virtuoso pianist. Like other intellectuals in St. Petersburg, Tiomkin frequented the club near the Opera, called Stray Dog Café, where Russian celebrities, including directors Vsevolod Meyerhold and Nicolas Evreinoff, writers Boris Pasternak, Aleksei Tolstoy, Sergei Esenin, Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilev and Vladimir Mayakovsky, had their bohemian hangout. There Tiomlkin could be seen with his two friends, composer Sergei Prokofiev and choreographer Mikhail Fokin. At that time he also gained exposure and a keen interest in American music, including the works of Irving Berlin, ragtime, blues, and early jazz. Tiomkin started his music career as a piano accompanist for Russian and French silent films in movie houses of St. Petersburg. When the famous comedian Max Linder toured in Russia, he hired Tiomkin to play piano improvisations for the Max Linder Show, and their collaboration was successful. He also provided classical piano accompaniment for the famous ballerina Tamara Karsavina. However, the 1917 Communist Revolution in Russia caused dramatic political and economic changes. From 1917 to 1921 Tiomkin was a Red Army staff composer, writing scores for revolutionary mass spectacles at the Palace Square involving 500 musicians and 8000 extras, such as "The Storming of the Winter Palace" staged by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Nikolai Yevreinov for the third anniversary of the Communist Revolution. In 1921 Tiomkin emigrated from Russia and moved to Berlin to join his father, who was working with the famous German biochemist Paul Ehrlich. In Berlin Tiomkin had several study sessions with Ferruccio Busoni and his circle. By 1922 Dimitri was well known for his concert appearances in Germany, often with the Berlin Philharmonic. Among his repertoire were pieces written for him by other composers. He also concertized in France. There, in Paris, Feodor Chaliapin Sr. convinced Tiomkin to emigrate to the United States. In 1925 Tiomkin got his first gig in New York: he became the main pianist for a Broadway dance studio. There he met and soon married the principal dancer/choreographer, Albertina Rasch. He also met composers George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern. In 1928 Tiomkin made a concert tour of Europe, introducing the works of Gershwin to audiences there. He gave the French premiere of Gershwin's "Piano Concerto in F" at the famed "L'Opera de Paris." His Hollywood debut came in 1929, when MGM offered him a contract to score music for five films. His wife got a position as an assistant choreographer for some musical films. He also scored a Universal Pictures film, performed concerts in New York City and continued composing ballet music for his wife's dance work. He also continued writing American popular music and songs. He received further Broadway exposure with the Shuberts and Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.. He produced his own play "Keeping Expenses Down," but it was a flop amidst the gloom of the Big Depression, and he once again returned to Hollywood in 1933. When he came back he was on his own. By that time Tiomkin was disillusioned with the intrigue and politics inside the Hollywood studio system. He already knew the true value of his musical talent, and chose to freelance with the studios rather than accepting a multi-picture contract. He became something of a crusader, pushing for better pay and residuals. His independent personality was reflected in his music and business life: he was never under a long-term studio contract. Though MGM was the first to be acquainted with his services, Tiomkin next turned to Paramount for Alice in Wonderland (1933), another fine example of making music that he liked. Hollywood's most prominent independent composer, Tiomkin, thanks to his free-agent status, negotiated contractual terms to his benefit, which in turn benefited other musicians. He aggressively sought music publishing rights and formed his own ASCAP music publishing company, Volta Music Corporation, while remaining faithful to France-based performing rights organization SACEM. In Tiomkin's own words: "My fight is for dignity. Not only for composer, but for all artists responsible for picture." He also fought for employing qualified musicians regardless of their race. As a composer classically trained at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Tiomkin was highly skilled in orchestral arrangements with complex brass and strings, but he was also thoroughly versed in the musical subtleties of America and integrated it into traditional European forms. His interest in the musical form resulted in his next score, for the operetta Naughty Marietta (1935), a popular musical that teamed Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. He also did his fair share of stock music arranging. Among his most successful partnerships was that with director Frank Capra, starting with Lost Horizon (1937), where Tiomkin used many innovative ideas, and received his first Academy Award nomination. The association with Capra lasted through four more famous films, culminating with It's a Wonderful Life (1946). In 1937 Tiomkin became a naturalized American citizen. The next year he made his public conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. During the WWII years he wrote music for 12 military documentaries, earning himself a special decoration from the US Department of Defense. After the war he ventured into all styles of music for movies, ranging from mystery and horror to adventure and drama, such as his enchanting score, intricately worked around Claude Debussy's "Girl with the Flaxen Hair," for the haunting Portrait of Jennie (1948) and the energetic martial themes for Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). He scored three films for Alfred Hitchcock, perhaps the most inventive being for the tension-building Strangers on a Train (1951) with its out-of-control carousel finale. He also worked with top directors in that exclusively American genre: the western. His loudest success was the original music for Duel in the Sun (1946) by King Vidor. For that film, Tiomkin wrote a lush orchestral score, trying to fulfill writer/producer David O. Selznick's request to "Make a theme for orgasm!" Tiomkin worked for several weeks, and composed a powerful theme culminating with 40 drummers. Selsnick was impressed, but commented: "This is not orgasm!" Tiomkin worked for one more month and delivered an even more powerful theme culminating with 100 voices. Selznick was impressed again, but commented: "This is not orgasm! This is not the way I f..k!" Tiomkin replied brilliantly, "Mister Selznick, you may f..k the way you want, but this is the way I f..k!" Selznick was convinced, and after that Tiomkin's music was fully accepted. In 1948 he wrote the score for one of the westerns with John Wayne, Red River (1948) by Howard Hawks. Wayne had Tiomkin's touch on five more movies into the 1960s. Tiomkin was adding a song to all of his scores, starting with the obscure Trail to Mexico (1946). The result was successful, and the western score with songs became Tiomkin's signature. Horns and lush string orchestral sound are most associated with Tiomkin's style, which culminated in The Unforgiven (1960) by John Huston, although he used the same approach in High Noon (1952) with the famous song "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'" and Howard Hawks' The Big Sky (1952). Most of his big-screen songs were written for westerns and totaled some 25 themes. The most songs he composed for one movie was six for Friendly Persuasion (1956). Tiomkin achieved dramatic effects by using his signature orchestral arrangements in such famous films as Giant (1956), The Old Man and the Sea (1958) and The Guns of Navarone (1961). He also wrote music and theme songs for several TV series, most notably for Clint Eastwood's Rawhide (1959). In 1967 his beloved wife, Albertina Rasch, passed away, and Tiomkin was emotionally devastated. Going back from his wife's funeral to his Hancock Park home in Los Angeles, he was attacked and beaten by a street gang. The crime caused him more pain, so upon recommendation of his doctor, Tiomkin moved to Europe for the rest of his life. In the 1960s Tiomkin produced Mackenna's Gold (1969) starring Gregory Peck and Omar Sharif. He also executive-produced and orchestrated the US/Russian co-production Tchaikovsky (1970), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for best music, and the movie was also nominated in the foreign language film category. Filming on locations in Russia allowed him to return to his homeland for the first time since 1921, which also was the last visit to his mother country. In 1972 Tiomkin married Olivia Cynthia Patch, a British aristocrat, and the couple settled in London. They also maintained a second home in Paris. For the rest of his life Tiomkin indulged himself in playing piano, a joy also shared by his wife. He died on November 11, 1979, in London, England, and was laid to rest in Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Glendale, California. In 1999 Dimitri Tiomkin was pictured on one of six 33¢ USA commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, honoring Hollywood Composers. His music remains popular, and is continuously used in many new films, such as Inglourious Basterds (2009) by director Quentin Tarantino.Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
I Confess (1953)
Dial M for Murder (1954)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Emil Newman was born on 20 January 1911 in Connecticut, USA. He was a composer, known for Laura (1944), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and Lifeboat (1944). He was married to Eve Farrell. He died on 30 August 1984 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.Lifeboat (1944)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
A child prodigy, Miklos Rózsa learned to play the violin at the age of five and read music before he was able to read words. In 1926, he began studying at the Leipzig Conservatory where he was considered a brilliant student. He obtained his doctorate in music in 1930. Moving to Paris the following year, Rózsa had much of his own chamber music performed, as well as his 'Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song' and his 'Symphony and Serenade for Small Orchestra'. However, he soon became disenchanted with meagre wages for playing classical music in concert. Attempting to change his financial situation, Rózsa managed to secure a contract with Pathe records to compose music for use in intermissions between movies. This was to be his first step in entering the more lucrative field of film composition. In 1935, Rózsa went to London after being invited by the Hungarian Legation to write the music for a ballet. The resulting work, 'Hungaria', so impressed the director Jacques Feyder that he set up a meeting with fellow Hungarian Alexander Korda, who then commissioned him to write an opulent score for the romantic drama Knight Without Armor (1937). Rózsa later recalled having to learn to write music for films 'the hard way': "I bought one German and one Russian book on the technique of film music and everything I learned from these books was absolutely wrong! But then I had long conferences with Muir Mathieson, who was the music director and conductor for Korda, and somehow I learned."
While writing the score for The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Rózsa relocated to Hollywood where he remained gainfully employed over the next four decades. An expert at orchestration and counterpoint with a great flair for the dramatic, he often concentrated on the psychological aspects of a film. One of his innovations was the use of a theremin for the famous dream sequence in Spellbound (1945) which accompanies Salvador Dalí's transcendental nightmare images. Few composers have managed to convey suspense and tension as powerfully as Rózsa with his eerily haunting scores for some of the Golden Era's best films noir (Double Indemnity (1944), The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), The Killers (1946), The Naked City (1948)) or his lush, stirring music for spectacular epics (Quo Vadis (1951), Ivanhoe (1952), El Cid (1961)). In addition to winning three Oscars for his film work, Rózsa also continued as a prolific composer of classical music, including Violin and Piano Concertos, a Concerto for String Orchestra, a Sinfonia Concertante and Notturno Ungherese (influenced, respectively, by Stravinsky and Bartók). In 1945, he was appointed Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California where also lectured on the subject for many years.Spellbound (1945)- Music Department
- Sound Department
Audrey Granville was born on 26 July 1910 in Nebraska, USA. She is known for The Giant Gila Monster (1959), Medic (1954) and Thunder in Carolina (1960). She was married to Roy Granville. She died on 30 October 1972 in Encino, California, USA.Spellbound (1945)- Music Department
- Soundtrack
The foot doctor whose nervous theremin style defined the sound of ghosts, goblins, and space invaders started his musical career as a violin player in New York. Starting at the age of 14, Hoffman became the youngest musician to play at Loew's New York Roof Garden, and later formed his own orchestra. He studied podiatry at Long Island University and became a foot doctor by day and band leader by night (under the stage name Hal Hope). He obtained his theremin in a barter with another musician and integrated it into his act as a novelty. In the 1940's Dr. Hoffman transferred his medical practice to Los Angeles. In keeping with his habits as a union musician, he registered as violinist and, under "other instruments," as thereminist. When film composer Miklos Rozsa was looking for a thereminist to play in Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), Hoffman was the only one listed and he was hired on the spot when Rozsa heard him quickly sight-read his developing score. Hoffman went on to play theremin in dozens of Hollywood films in the 1940's and 1950's, usually for scenes of fear, madness, drunkenness, and emotional distress. He performed on three successful record albums for composer Harry Revel, concertized in Los Angeles, and appeared on television. Hoffman's theremin career effectively ended in 1959 when trombonist Paul Tanner invented the mechanical "Electro-Theremin" which, in the 1960's, replaced the space-controlled theremin in movies, TV shows, and recordings.Spellbound (1945)- Music Department
- Sound Department
Earl B. Mounce was born on 3 June 1894 in the USA. He is known for Girl Rush (1944), Beat the Band (1947) and A Dangerous Profession (1949). He died on 10 September 1968 in Sedona, Arizona, USA.Spellbound (1945)- Music Department
- Composer
Eugene Zador was born on 11 May 1894 in Bátaszék, Hungary. Eugene was a composer, known for More About Nostradamus (1941). Eugene died on 5 April 1977 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Spellbound (1945)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Constantin Bakaleinikoff was born in Moscow in 1896 and studied music at the Moscow Conservatory. Trained as a violoncellist and conductor, he formed a trio with fellow young conservatory graduates and toured Russia, until enlistment in the infantry during World War I forced a temporary stop to his career. Along with his (also musical) brothers Mischa and Vladimir, Constantine fled from Russia during the October Revolution of 1917 and resettled in the United States, after travelling through Asia. Once established in Los Angeles, his talent was soon recognized. Within a year, he conducted the L.A. Philharmonic, and, subsequently, became musical director of several noted theatre orchestras in the area, including the Mayan, the Eqyptian and the Criterion. In 1923, he married the actress Fritzi Ridgeway. His major breakthrough came four years later, in the shape of an appointment to conduct the prestigious new million dollar Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
From 1929, Constantine worked in the film industry as orchestrator and occasional composer, primarily for documentary short subjects. After stints at MGM, Paramount and Columbia, he secured a contract with RKO in 1940. He remained with that studio for the remaining 17 years of its existence, usually billing himself as 'C.Bakaleinikoff'. Almost all of his work was as musical director, and much of it, in conjunction with the prolific composer Roy Webb. He is best remembered for orchestrating None But the Lonely Heart (1944) (which earned him an Oscar nomination) and Alfred Hitchcock's classic spy thriller Notorious (1946). He also worked on many of RKO's seminal Val Lewton horror films, notably Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943) and The Body Snatcher (1945). When not working on the sound stages, Constantine continued to front theatre orchestras, as well as conduct at the Hollywood Bowl.Notorious (1946)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Gil Grau was born on 7 December 1908 in Illinois, USA. Gil was a composer, known for Notorious (1946), Batman: The Movie (1966) and Lolita (1962). Gil died on 29 May 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Notorious (1946)- Music Department
- Composer
Harold Byrns was born on 13 September 1903 in Hannover, Germany. He was a composer, known for Cover Up (1949), The Girl on the Bridge (1951) and Pickup (1951). He died in February 1977 in Berlin, Germany.The Paradine Case (1947)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Paul Dessau was born on 19 December 1894 in Hamburg, Germany. He was a composer, known for Adventures of Casanova (1948), The Wife of Monte Cristo (1946) and The Novel of Werther (1938). He was married to Ruth Berghaus, Antje Ruge, Elisabeth Hauptmann and Gudrun Kabisch. He died on 28 June 1979 in Königs Wusterhausen, German Democratic Republic.The Paradine Case (1947)- Music Department
Wolfgang Edward Rebner was the son of violinist Adolph Rebner (1876-1967), who was a friend of composer Arnold Schoenberg and teacher of composer Paul Hindemith. Wolfgang Rebner left Germany in 1939 and pursued a career in Hollywood as a pianist. He often performed in Los Angeles for Peter Yates's "Evenings on the Roof" which evolved into the famous "Monday Evening Concerts." After World War II, he became more and more involved with the music of his homeland, finally returning to Germany permanently to teach at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich.
He composed many works, including "Montagnola" for orchestra.The Paradine Case (1947)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Leo Forbstein began as a violin player at the age of 4. While conducting at the Royal Theater in St. Joseph, Mo., he pioneered and introduced the synchronization of the orchestra with the silent action on the movie screen.
He moved to Hollywood in the mid 1920s where he directed a symphony orchestra at Grauman's Egyptian Theater. He signed as head of the Warner Brothers music department and director of the Vitaphone Orchestra in 1926. Forbstein was nominated for 3 (three) Academy Awards for Best Score: 1936's Anthony Adverse (1936) and The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), and 1937's The Life of Emile Zola (1937). He took home the Oscar for his work in Anthony Adverse (1936) (which was the first Oscar ever awarded in this category). He was working on the score for the 1948 Academy Awards show when he suffered a heart attack. A radio tribute in his honor aired April 25, 1958, on radio station KFWB. Paying tribute were: Eddie Cantor, Danny Kaye, Doris Day, Al Jolson, Dinah Shore, Johnny Mercer, Frances Langford, Gordon McRae, Rudy Vallee, Max Steiner and an orchestra of 96 pieces. A personal tribute was also delivered by Jack L. Warner.Rope (1948)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
English composer Richard Addinsell was born in 1904. After finishing his law studies at Oxford, he took a short course in music at the Royal College of Music in London and studied from 1929 to 1932 in Berlin and Vienna. From 1933 to 1935 he lived in the USA writing scores for the Hollywood studios.Under Capricorn (1949)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Leighton Lucas was born on 5 January 1903 in London, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Stage Fright (1950), Ice Cold in Alex (1958) and The Dam Busters (1955). He died on 1 November 1982 in London, England, UK.Stage Fright (1950)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Raymond John Heindorf was born August 25, 1908. in Haverstraw, New York. He grew up in Mechanicville, New York, where he moved to when he was about 10 years old. In 1926 he graduated from Mechanicville High School. He was interested in cars and machinery; he loved to play pool with his father, the late John J. Heindorf, at the Railroad YMCA, where he was the Railroad Express agent. Ray took a business course at the Mechanicville High School. His genius at the piano was reflected in his speed on the typewriter. He had an excellent rating, but decided that business was not to be his field of endeavor. He graduated with the Class of 1926 and during his high school days he played the piano at the State Theatre (now demolished) to earn extra money. Ray eventually met Arthur Lang for a job, saying he was an arranger of dance music, and thus began a long friendship.
When sound pictures took the place of the silent films, Ray and Lang decided to move to Hollywood. His first picture was The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929) at MGM. Ray connected with Warner Bros. in 1932 and remained there for the rest of his life. He succeeded Leo F. Forbstein as Music Director upon Forbstein's death in 1948. Ray was first married to Maxine and had a son, the late Michael Heindorf, and later married Lorraine and had two daughters. Ray left Warner Bros. in 1965. Until his death, Ray lived in Los Angeles, having moved from Encino. Shortly before he died, Ray had completed an oral history, which was done at the request of Yale University and was conducted in Ray's home by Irene Kahn Atkins, Gus Kahn's daughter.
Raymond John Heindorf passed away on February 3, 1980. at Tarzana California Medical Center, ending an era of music that will never be the same again. His funeral service was held at St. Francis de Sales Church, Shermain Oaks, CA, and he is buried at San Fernando Valley Mission Cemetery. His favorite baton was buried with him.Strangers on a Train (1951)
I Confess (1953)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
George Parrish was born on 26 September 1901 in Missouri, USA. He was a composer, known for Frenchman's Creek (1944), Reign of Terror (1949) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). He died on 11 April 1982 in Los Angeles, California, USA.I Confess (1953)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Sidney Cutner was born on 16 April 1903 in Mariupol, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire [now Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine]. Sidney was a composer, known for Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Gun Crazy (1950) and Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962). Sidney died on 20 September 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Rear Window (1954)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Gus Levene was born on 11 July 1911 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was a composer, known for The King and I (1956), The Music Man (1962) and At Long Last Love (1975). He died on 9 February 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Rear Window (1954)
Vertigo (1958)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Leo Shuken was an American composer and orchestrator, best known for his western scores. He was co-recipient of the Oscar for best scoring of Stagecoach (1939). In his heyday, Shuken was under contract to Paramount, 1937-1944, at which time he worked on several films of the director Preston Sturges. In collaboration with Jack Hayes, Shuken subsequently became a prolific writer of music for TV westerns, with many episodes of Gunsmoke (1955), Wagon Train (1957) and The Virginian (1962) to his credit. Along with Hayes, he also orchestrated some of the best film music of Elmer Bernstein, including The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), Hawaii (1966) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). His other output included a "Trumpet Concerto" and the "The Dorsey Concerto", written specifically for the two famous band leaders and performed on trombone by Tommy and on clarinet and saxophone by Jimmy.Rear Window (1954)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Van Cleave was born on 8 May 1910 in Bayfield, Wisconsin, USA. Van Cleave was a composer, known for White Christmas (1954), Funny Face (1957) and Easter Parade (1948). Van Cleave was married to Doris. Van Cleave died on 2 July 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Rear Window (1954)- Composer
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Lyn Murray was born on 6 December 1909 in London, England, UK. Lyn was a composer, known for To Catch a Thief (1955), Trading Places (1983) and Monte Carlo (2011). Lyn was married to Margaret Pexton. Lyn died on 20 May 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.To Catch a Thief (1955)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
The man behind the low woodwinds that open Citizen Kane (1941), the shrieking violins of Psycho (1960), and the plaintive saxophone of Taxi Driver (1976) was one of the most original and distinctive composers ever to work in film. He started early, winning a composition prize at the age of 13 and founding his own orchestra at the age of 20. After writing scores for Orson Welles's radio shows in the 1930s (including the notorious 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast), he was the obvious choice to score Welles's film debut, Citizen Kane (1941), and, subsequently, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), although he removed his name from the latter after additional music was added without his (or Welles's) consent when the film was mutilated by a panic-stricken studio. Herrmann was a prolific film composer, producing some of his most memorable work for Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he wrote nine scores. A notorious perfectionist and demanding (he once said that most directors didn't have a clue about music, and he blithely ignored their instructions--like Hitchcock's suggestion that Psycho (1960) have a jazz score and no music in the shower scene). He ended his partnership with Hitchcock after the latter rejected his score for Torn Curtain (1966) on studio advice. He was also an early experimenter in the sounds used in film scores, most famously The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), scored for two theremins, pianos, and a horn section; and was a consultant on the electronic sounds created by Oskar Sala on the mixtrautonium for The Birds (1963). His last score was for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) and died just hours after recording it. He also wrote an opera, "Wuthering Heights", and a cantata, "Moby Dick".The Trouble with Harry (1955)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
The Wrong Man (1956)
Vertigo (1958)
North by Northwest (1959)
Psycho (1960)
The Birds (1963)
Marnie (1964)- Music Department
John C. Hammell was born on 14 August 1915 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He is known for Chinatown (1974), 10 (1979) and A Fine Mess (1986). He died on 30 August 2002 in Glendale, California, USA.The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)- Music Department
- Actor
Victor Aller is known for Song Without End (1960).The Wrong Man (1956)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, Muir first worked in the movies on the quota quickies of the 1930s. His big break came when Alexander Korda signed him as musical director on The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934). He went on to conduct Sir William Walton's score for Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948), as a part of a long, distinguished career as one of the most distinguished composers and musical directors in British cinema.Vertigo (1958)- Music Department
- Sound Department
Leon Birnbaum was born on 11 October 1912 in New York, New York, USA. He is known for The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Exodus (1960) and The Big Gamble (1961). He died on 5 September 1964 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Vertigo (1958)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
British composer, primarily of film scores. From a military family and the son of a Royal Field Artillery colonel, John Mervyn Addison was born March 16, 1920, in Chobham, Surrey, and attended Wellington College, Berkshire, with plans for a military career. His interest and talent for music intervened, and he left Wellington for the Royal College of Music. With the opening of the Second World War, however, he was diverted back to the military and spent the war in a tank unit of the 22nd Hussars, being wounded in Normandy and rising to the rank of captain. After the war, he returned to the Royal College of Music, specializing in composition, clarinet, and oboe. By age 30, he had been made a professor of composition. He had previously won the RCM's Sullivan Award for Composition and was soon deluged with commissions for new compositions. He produced a wide variety of concerti, chamber pieces, and ballets. Although his first music for a film came in 1942 for Roy Boulting's Thunder Rock, his score was not used, and it was 1950 before he truly entered his principal profession, that of film composer. He scored numerous prominent films, among them Seven Days to Noon, Look Back in Anger, The Entertainer, and Tom Jones, for which he won an Academy Award. He received another Oscar nomination for his score to Sleuth, and a BAFTA nomination for his music for A Bridge Too Far, coincidentally the story of a World War II battle in which he himself had participated. In the late 1970s, Addison moved to the United States and focused a good deal of his work on television productions, most famously creating the popular theme music to the TV series Murder She Wrote. He died following a stroke, on December 7, 1998, in Bennington, Vermont. He was survived by his wife Pamela, 2 stepchildren, and 3 of his four biological children.Torn Curtain (1966)- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Unlike many musicians who started to learn music while still in their childhood, Maurice Jarre was already late in his teens when he discovered music and decided to make a career in that field. Against his father's will, he enrolled at Conservatoire de Paris where he studied percussions, composition and harmonies. He also met and studied under Joseph Martenot, inventor of the Martenot Waves, an electronic keyboard that prefigured the modern synthesizer.
After leaving the Conservatoire, Jarre played percussion and Martenot Waves for a while at Jean-Louis Barrault's theater. In 1950, another actor-director, Jean Vilar , asked Jarre to score his production of Kleist's 'The Princess of Homburg', the first score Jarre wrote. Shortly after, Vilar created the 'Théâtre National Populaire' and hired Jarre as permanent composer, an association that lasted 12 years.
In 1951, filmmaker Georges Franju asked him to write the music of his 23 minutes documentary Hôtel des Invalides (1952), Jarre's first composition for the movie screen. His first full-length feature, again directed by Georges Franju, was Head Against the Wall (1959) followed by Franju's best known film, Eyes Without a Face (1960).
Jarre's career took a spectacular turn in 1961 when producer Sam Spiegel asked him to work on David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Initially, three composers were supposed to write the score, but for various reasons, Jarre ended up writing all the music himself and won his first Oscar. His second collaboration with David Lean on Doctor Zhivago (1965) earned him another Oscar and obtained a level of success rarely achieved by a film score. He collaborated with Lean again on Ryan's Daughter (1970) and A Passage to India (1984) for which he received a third Academy Award. He was set to score Lean's next movie, 'Nostromo', but the director became ill and died before the film could ever get made.
He also worked for directors as diverse as William Wyler (The Collector (1965)); John Huston (three films); Franco Zeffirelli (Jesus of Nazareth (1977)); Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum (1979) [The Tin Drum] and Circle of Deceit (1981) [Circle of Deceit]); Peter Weir (four films); Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist (1988)) and Alfonso Arau (A Walk in the Clouds (1995)).
Mainly perceived as a symphonist and known for his prominent use of percussions, Jarre often integrated ethnic instruments in his orchestrations like cithara on 'Lawrence of Arabia' or fujara (an old Slovak flute) on 'The Tin Drum'. During the eighties, he incorporated synthetic sounds in his music, writing his first entirely electronic score for The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). His son Jean-Michel Jarre is a well-known popular musician.Topaz (1969)- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Ron Goodwin was born on 17th February 1925 in Plymouth. He was the son of a London policeman who was detached to the harbour-town. His mother felt that piano lessons would be a good pastime, so in his fifth year, the little Ron was hoisted onto a piano-stool and his education on this instrument began. Ron himself was at that time not really convinced about that parental ambition.
In 1934 his father's detachment ended and the family moved back to London. Ron went for his elementary education to the Willesden County Grammar school, situated in the North-West of London. In the school an orchestra was set-up and Ron got slowly attracted by music. It fascinated him, that all these young people were playing different instruments but that the result was very harmonious.
When he was 11, he went to his teacher and asked for a place in the orchestra. His teacher replied: "We don't have enough trumpet players. Learn how to play the trumpet and we'll see". That's what they call "Hobson's Choice". And so he learned to play the trumpet. Ready after just a few lessons, Ron joined the school orchestra. He kept continuing with his trumpet lessons because he felt that there was more prosperity in a career as a trumpet player than as a pianist. Moreover he had more fun in playing the trumpet. Nevertheless he also continued his piano lessons. The piano has always been a very useful instrument for him, when writing music. But frankly, he never became a virtuoso pianist. He was a much better trumpet player.
The end of the '30s was the era of swing with the great big bands of Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and Woody Herman. In 1939, at the age of just 14, he formed his own dance band called "The Woodchoppers". Very soon the orchestra got some engagements here and there. The signature tune for their performances was "At the Woodchoppers Ball", a swinging Woody Herman composition. That explains the name "The Woodchoppers". The band was very soon semi-professional and very regularly entered competitions for dance bands.
After he had studied harmony and counterpoint, he left school in 1942. In deference to his mother's doubts about the security status and prospects of music as a career, he took a job as junior clerk in an insurance office. He held the job for three months. After repeatedly catching him fixing gigs for "The Woodchoppers" over the office 'phone, Ron's boss advised him to forget insurance and take his chances in music. He still thinks that this is the best advice ever given to him.
He started as a copyist for the music publisher Campbell Connelly. There he got the opportunity to work with and learn from Harry G. Stafford. This was an elderly thoroughly experienced arranger, who had arranged the music of Hubert Bath for Hitchcock's first English sound film Blackmail (1929) in 1929. Stafford taught him all the methods for producing arrangements and how to lay out a score. In that period he also studied a private course on how to conduct an orchestra with Siegfried de Chabot, a teacher at the Royal Music College.
After a few months working for Campbell Connelly, he applied for a job as an arranger for Norrie Paramor and Harry Gold. They were joint-proprietors of "The Paramor-Gold Orchestral Services" and they also had a jazz orchestra called "The Pieces of Eight". He was hired, although he thinks that it was not only because of his skills as an arranger. In that jazz orchestra there used to be an excellent trumpet player called Cyril Ellis. He was drafted for the Navy and so Paramor and Gold lacked a musician. Goodwin, being a trumpet player, replaced Cyril in the orchestra and was also the arranger of the "Paramor-Gold Orchestral Services".
As an arranger he was particularly working for a BBC program called "Composers Cavalcade". Every week a different well-known composer of light music, like Albert Ketelby, Noël Coward or Ivor Novello was chosen. Goodwin provided all the arrangements for these weekly broadcasts and he got a lot of experience through it. In the meantime his band, "The Woodchoppers", won several Dance Band competitions and in 1945 came fifth in the All Britain Dance Band Championship.
After the contract with Norrie Paramor ended, he started working for the music-publisher Edward Kassner. Here he arranged the music for various types of orchestras. One day a pub or dance orchestra, the other day for BBC radio orchestras. In the meantime he also did the orchestrations for well-know orchestra leaders like Stanley Black, Ted Heath, Geraldo, Peter Yorke and Ambrose.
In 1949 he started working for Polygon. In those days the record market was dominated by two giants: Decca and EMI. Polygon was the brainchild of Alan Freeman (not to be confused with the D.J. of the same name). He also continued working or the Kassner Music Company as a manager/publisher and he was determined to fulfil his greatest wish - making records. He already had some contacts in Australia who wanted pop records and he decided to have these sung by Petula Clark. Petula was born on 15 November 1932 as Sally Clark. From her seventh year she had been singing regularly and had become a popular child-star through her radio performances during World War II. In 1944, when she was 11, she signed a film contract for the Rank Organisation. Despite her popularity neither Decca nor EMI were willing to give her a contract. Alan Freeman approached Leslie Clark, Petula's father who was also her manager. Leslie Clark took up the opportunity, invested also some money and Polygon was born.
At the end of 1949 the first recording session took place. That day four titles were recorded: "You go to My Head", "Out of a Clear Blue Sky", "Music! Music! Music!" ("Put Another Nickel in...") and "Blossoms on the Bough", featuring Petula Clark and the Stargazers with accompaniment conducted by Ron Goodwin. He was then just 24 years old. The 2 records were released in Australia and became a big success there. In 1950 "Too Young" was recorded, a cover version of Nat King Cole's USA no. 1 hit, sung by the then completely unknown singer/pianist, Jimmy Young, with accompaniment conducted by Ron Goodwin. The record became a big hit and gave a huge impulse to the careers of both Jimmy Young and Ron Goodwin. After that, Ron also recorded his first two instrumental records.
Polygon was not able to handle the enormous success of Jimmy Young and by the end of 1952 he moved to Decca. Ron Goodwin already had his contract with Parlophone, but on the Decca label he conducted fifteen Jimmy Young records. Ron Goodwin was still very young and the producer Dickie Rowe called him Ronnie Goodwin on the first of those Decca records. It did not go so well with Polygon after that. The company was not able to make up for the loss of Jimmy Young. Petula proved to be their only continuing asset and in 1955 Polygon was amalgamated with (Pye) Nixa.
In the slipstream of the success of "Too Young" Ron Goodwin was from then on an established name in the British musical world, performing under the name: "Ron Goodwin and his Orchestra" or depending on the mood of the person in charge of the marketing: "Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra". The orchestra he formed consisted at first of 36 persons but later it grew to 42. All of them were session musicians personally selected by him. These musicians worked for him only during the record sessions. A day later they could be working for, for instance, Mantovani or Geraldo. Indeed, the Mantovani orchestra was also comprised entirely of session musicians.
In 1951 Ron Goodwin met George Martin, who was at that time a young assistant recording manager at Parlophone. George offered him a contract of backings for 12 vocal singles and 6 singles with his own orchestra every year. His first instrumental record on Parlophone was released in 1953. In that same year he recorded his version of Charles Chaplin's "Limelight" and reached third place in the English hit parade with it.
In the following years he made numerous records with his orchestra and did the vocal backings of, amongst others: Eamonn Andrews, Joan Baxter, Christine Campbell, Petula Clark, Jim Dale, Bruce Forsyth, Nadia Gray, The Headliners, Edmund Hockridge, Dick James, Cynthia Lanagan, Zack Laurence, Lorne Lesley, Larry Marschall, Glen Mason, Spike Milligan, Morecambe & Wise, Parlophone Pops Orchestra, Rostal & Schaefer, Edna Savage, Peter Sellers, Joan Small, Ian Wallace, Alma Warren and Jimmy Young.
Nowadays, many of those names are not familiar any more to us, but in those days you could find them regularly in the hit parades. Jim Dale started as a rock-singer, but became later a comedian and a member of the cast of the "Carry on..." films. Dick James started his own publishing company and became later the publisher of all the Beatles hits. And Edmund Hockridge? He still has his own fan club.
In 1954 Ron Goodwin recorded his first album in his own right: "Film Favourites". After that followed many more LPs, also 2 oriental: "Music for an Arabian Night" and "Holiday in Beirut". Long before he recorded "Sergeant Pepper ....." with The Beatles, George Martin was the producer of many concept-albums. A perfect example is the Goodwin album "Out of this World". On this LP the galaxy is traversed in an orchestral way (without the use of synthesisers!). Released in 1958, a few months after the first satellite "Sputnik" was put into orbit. Photos of launched rockets were not available yet, so the rocket on the front cover is a drawn one.
In 1958 the skiffle-rhythm was a rage and Goodwin wrote "Skiffling Strings". The song entered the hit parade and the American label "Capitol" was interested to release it in the USA. But the Americans were wondering what "Skiffling" really meant. In America the skiffle-rage was completely unknown. So, the song was re-titled "Swingin' Sweethearts". Ron Goodwin and George Martin went to the States to promote the single in several television-broadcasts. Within 14 days the song entered the American hit parades and was later followed by "Lingering Lovers". Quite a number of his albums were released after that in the USA. In that year he received the Ivor Novello Award" for "Lingering Lovers" as the year's best English song.
Peter Sellers was already a well-known actor in Britain, especially because of his performances in the BBC broadcasting series "The Goon Show". In 1958, 1959 and 1960 he recorded three LPs. These albums are still considered as the standard for British comedy. The production of those albums was again in the hands of George Martin. Ron Goodwin did all the conducting of the accompanying music. The third album in the series was called: "Peter and Sophia". In 1960, Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren had just finished the shooting of the film The Millionairess (1960). In this film Sellers played an Indian doctor, who was waylaid by an enamoured Sophia Loren. The co-operation of both led to this album, on which they both did the song "Goodness Gracious Me!". The song became a massive hit and remained in the top 5 for weeks. For the recording of the album Sophia Loren was flown to London with her husband Carlo Ponti, where he met Ron Goodwin. In 1965 they renewed their acquaintance when Carlo Ponti produced the film Operation Crossbow (1965) and Ron Goodwin wrote the music.
Back in 1955, Ron Goodwin was involved for the first time in composing film music. Malcolm Arnold (of "Bridge on the River Kwai" fame) had written the score for the film The Night My Number Came Up (1955). The producer wanted several sequences with dance music in night club style. Arnold refused to write this music and so Ron Goodwin was asked to write these sequences. In the following years he wrote the music for several documentaries. 1956: "The Corrington Achievement" and in 1957 "Atlantic Line". They appear to be the exercises for the larger jobs.
In 1958 he met Lawrence P. Bachmann, at that time manager for Columbia Pictures in London. Bachmann had written a book and this was going to be filmed with the title Whirlpool (1959). He commissioned Ron Goodwin to write the music for this film. That was Goodwin's first contact with a feature film. A year later Bachmann became head of production of MGM-Europe. He liked the music Goodwin wrote for his film "Whirlpool" very much and he asked him to write the music for 4 or 5 films every year. The first of those was Village of the Damned (1960), still one of the best British science fiction films. This was followed by the very successful Miss Marple film-series featuring Margaret Rutherford.
Because he was so busy writing film music, there was no more time left for vocal backings and his contract as musical-director for Parlophone was not prolonged. For the time being, the last album he recorded was "Serenade", which contained his well-known version of "Elizabethan Serenade".
Films he scored in the early sixties included: Invasion Quartet (1961), Postman's Knock (1962) (with a hilarious vocal from Spike Milligan), The Day of the Triffids (1963), Kill or Cure (1962), Follow the Boys (1963) (featuring Connie Francis) and Sword of Lancelot (1963). These were followed in 1964 by the United Artists/Mirisch Corporation film 633 Squadron (1964). This score established Ron Goodwin on the international stage as a composer of film music. The main theme became one of his most well-known and for the past several years has been used as a sort of signature tune at the start of the Rotterdam Marathon to accompany and encourage the athletes. After that film there followed even more film scores of which the most well-known are: Of Human Bondage (1964), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (1965), Operation Crossbow (1965), The Trap (1966) (the theme from which was adopted by the BBC for their coverage of The London Marathon), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), Frenzy (1972) - when he replaced a score by Henry Mancini - and Force 10 from Navarone (1978).
In 1969, a very awkward situation existed with Battle of Britain (1969). Originally Sir William Walton wrote the music for this film. The producers were not really satisfied with the music and they gave the assignment to Goodwin. Sir William Walton is a kind of an institution and there was a lot of commotion about it. But Ron Goodwin was not to blame that he was signed to do the score. That Goodwin's score was apparently better, is simply proved by the fact that it was accepted by the producers. Apart, that is, from the fact that they liked Walton's "Battle in the Air" sequence more than Goodwin's and this is used in the film. These things can happen if one can choose. And so, nobody was happy with the situation, not Walton and not Goodwin.
In "Battle of Britain" it was very important that the audience could constantly identify the combatants. Ron Goodwin therefore wrote a march for the German Luftwaffe which he called, yes indeed, "Luftwaffe March". A few years later, one of the Bands of the Royal Airforce was going to record an album with marches, including "Luftwaffe March". A march with that name, recorded by an RAF Band already existed, therefore the march was re-titled "Aces High". The first editions of the soundtrack album mention the title "Luftwaffe march". On the later re-issues the new title "Aces High" was used.
In 1966 he resumed recording again for EMI, of both his own compositions and those of others. Now in the famous "Studio 2" stereo series, first came "Adventure", followed by "Gypsy Fire", "Christmas Wonderland", "Legend of the Glass Mountain", "Excitement", "Spellbound" and many others. By 1975, over a million of these albums with "Ron Goodwin and his (Concert) orchestra" had been sold and he received a gold record from EMI.
In 1979 Goodwin recorded "The Beatles Concerto". For collectors of Beatles and related records this is a very interesting LP. It was not the umpteenth album with a medley of tunes by Lennon-McCartney-Harrison, but contains a number of Beatle songs, arranged in a classical form and performed by England's most talented concert-pianists: Peter Rostal and Paul Schaefer. These were accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The record was produced by Beatles producer George Martin. Anyone who loves the great piano concertos of Rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky will be impressed by "The Beatles Concerto". The sleeve with a fantastic full-colour inner sleeve with photos of the recording sessions is a gem. There were over 100,000 copies of the album sold. And still is there a demand for it.
The last film he scored, was the Danish animated feature Valhalla (1986). The soundtrack album was only released in Scandinavia and that is really a pity. The released soundtracks of Goodwin's animation-scores were more or less fairytale records for children: narration with background music and songs. But that is not the case with "Valhalla". This is a fantastic symphonic score, without the many songs which seems to be obligatory in all animation films. This music would perfectly fit a live-motion film, it is full of fresh and new elements. Maybe this is also a result of synergy, because he wrote this score in collaboration with the Dane, Bent Hesselmann.
In 1979 the City Fathers of his native town Plymouth invited him to compose a Suite for the commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the Globe. The vicinity of the Atlantic and the atmosphere of a harbour-town in his childhood years, probably had their influence on this Suite.
The influence of his lengthy stay in hit parade environments and his accompaniments of various pop artistes are audible in several scores. For instance That Riviera Touch (1966) and Kill or Cure (1962) are really swinging numbers. A problem for Goodwin was that his best scores were made in a period when film producers were not particularly interested in releasing a soundtrack, so many of them failed to get a release.
In 1970 Ron Goodwin was invited by the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to conduct a programme of his film music. To ease the tension between items, he improvised and told the audience some remarks and anecdotes about the performed pieces. They started to laugh. It turned out to be the turning point in his career. The idea was born to bring in concert a mixture of film and light music and the items melt together with a touch of humour. Within a few months a tour was organized and he toured constantly with different well-known Symphony orchestras all over the world, always playing to a full house. The orchestras he toured with included: The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The Odense Symphony Orchestra, The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, The Denver Symphony Orchestra and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Ron Goodwin has scored approximately 70 films, there are between 70 and 80 albums released of his music and he recorded and accompanied on 250-350 singles. Films of the type like "Where Eagles Dare", "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" and "Monte Carlo or Bust", to which the music of Ron Goodwin makes a great contribution, are not being made anymore. And that is unfortunate in two ways: firstly, because we will not see those kind of films anymore and secondly, because we will not hear that kind of music anymore!Frenzy (1972)- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
As one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, John Williams is as easy to recall as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein, illustrating why he is "America's composer" time and again. With a massive list of awards that includes over 52 Oscar nominations (five wins), twenty-odd Gold and Platinum Records, and a slew of Emmy (two wins), Golden Globe (three wins), Grammy (25 wins), National Board of Review (including a Career Achievement Award), Saturn (six wins), American Film Institute (including a Lifetime Achievement Award) and BAFTA (seven wins) citations, along with honorary doctorate degrees numbering in the teens, Williams is undoubtedly one of the most respected composers for Cinema. He's led countless national and international orchestras, most notably as the nineteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980-1993, helming three Pops tours of the US and Japan during his tenure. He currently serves as the Pop's Conductor Laureate. Also to his credit is a parallel career as an author of serious, and some not-so-serious, concert works - performed by the likes of Mstislav Rostropovich, André Previn, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Leonard Slatkin, James Ingram, Dale Clevenger, and Joshua Bell. Of particular interests are his Essay for Strings, a jazzy Prelude & Fugue, the multimedia presentation American Journey (aka The Unfinished Journey (1999)), a Sinfonietta for Winds, a song cycle featuring poems by Rita Dove, concerti for flute, violin, clarinet, trumpet, tuba, cello, bassoon and horn, fanfares for the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Summer Olympics, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and a song co-written with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman for the Special Olympics! But such a list probably warrants a more detailed background...
Born in Flushing, New York on February 8, 1932, John Towner Williams discovered music almost immediately, due in no small measure to being the son of a percussionist for CBS Radio and the Raymond Scott Quintet. After moving to Los Angeles in 1948, the young pianist and leader of his own jazz band started experimenting with arranging tunes; at age 15, he determined he was going to become a concert pianist; at 19, he premiered his first original composition, a piano sonata.
He attended both UCLA and the Los Angeles City College, studying orchestration under MGM musical associate Robert Van Eps and being privately tutored by composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, until conducting for the first time during three years with the U.S. Air Force. His return to the states brought him to Julliard, where renowned piano pedagogue Madame Rosina Lhevinne helped Williams hone his performance skills. He played in jazz clubs to pay his way; still, she encouraged him to focus on composing. So it was back to L.A., with the future maestro ready to break into the Hollywood scene.
Williams found work with the Hollywood studios as a piano player, eventually accompanying such fare such as the TV series Peter Gunn (1958), South Pacific (1958), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), as well as forming a surprising friendship with Bernard Herrmann. At age 24, "Johnny Williams" became a staff arranger at Columbia and then at 20th Century-Fox, orchestrating for Alfred Newman and Lionel Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, and other Golden Age notables. In the field of popular music, he performed and arranged for the likes of Vic Damone, Doris Day, and Mahalia Jackson... all while courting actress/singer Barbara Ruick, who became his wife until her death in 1974. John & Barbara had three children; their daughter is now a doctor, and their two sons, Joseph Williams and Mark Towner Williams, are rock musicians.
The orchestrating gigs led to serious composing jobs for television, notably Alcoa Premiere (1961), Checkmate (1960), Gilligan's Island (1964), Lost in Space (1965), Land of the Giants (1968), and his Emmy-winning scores for Heidi (1968) and Jane Eyre (1970). Daddy-O (1958) and Because They're Young (1960) brought his original music to the big theatres, but he was soon typecast doing comedies. His efforts in the genre helped guarantee his work on William Wyler's How to Steal a Million (1966), however, a major picture that immediately led to larger projects. Of course, his arrangements continued to garner attention, and he won his first Oscar for adapting Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
During the '70s, he was King of Disaster Scores with The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Towering Inferno (1974). His psychological score for Images (1972) remains one of the most innovative works in soundtrack history. But his Americana - particularly The Reivers (1969) - is what caught the ear of director Steven Spielberg, then preparing for his first feature, The Sugarland Express (1974). When Spielberg reunited with Williams on Jaws (1975), they established themselves as a blockbuster team, the composer gained his first Academy Award for Original Score, and Spielberg promptly recommended Williams to a friend, George Lucas. In 1977, John Williams re-popularized the epic cinema sound of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Waxman and other composers from the Hollywood Golden Age: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) became the best selling score-only soundtrack of all time, and spawned countless musical imitators. For the next five years, though the music in Hollywood changed, John Williams wrote big, brassy scores for big, brassy films - The Fury (1978), Superman (1978), 1941 (1979), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) ... An experiment during this period, Heartbeeps (1981), flopped. There was a long-term change of pace, nonetheless, as Williams fell in love with an interior designer and married once more.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) brought about his third Oscar, and The River (1984), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Accidental Tourist (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) added variety to the 1980s, as he returned to television with work on Amazing Stories (1985) and themes for NBC, including NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (1970). The '80s also brought the only exceptions to the composer's collaboration with Steven Spielberg - others scored both Spielberg's segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and The Color Purple (1985).
Intending to retire, the composer's output became sporadic during the 1990s, particularly after the exciting Jurassic Park (1993) and the masterful, Oscar-winning Schindler's List (1993). This lighter workload, coupled with a number of hilarious references on The Simpsons (1989) actually seemed to renew interest in his music. Two Home Alone films (1990, 1992), JFK (1991), Nixon (1995), Sleepers (1996), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Angela's Ashes (1999), and a return to familiar territory with Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) recalled his creative diversity of the '70s.
In this millennium, the artist shows no interest in slowing down. His relationships with Spielberg and Lucas continue in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), the remaining Star Wars prequels (2002, 2005), Minority Report (2002), Catch Me If You Can (2002), and a promised fourth Indiana Jones film. There is a more focused effort on concert works, as well, including a theme for the new Walt Disney Concert Hall and a rumored light opera. But one certain highlight is his musical magic for the world of Harry Potter (2001, 2002, 2004, etc.), which he also arranged into a concert suite geared toward teaching children about the symphony orchestra. His music remains on the whistling lips of people around the globe, in the concert halls, on the promenades, in album collections, sports arenas, and parades, and, this writer hopes, touching some place in ourselves. So keep those ears ready wherever you go, 'cause you will likely hear a bit of John Williams on your way.Family Plot (1976)