Jerrald King "Jerry" Goldsmith (February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004) was a famous and prolific American film score composer from Los Angeles, California. Goldsmith was nominated for eighteen Academy Awards (winning one, for The Omen), and also won five Emmy Awards. Goldsmith learned to play the piano at age six. At fourteen, he studied composition, theory and counterpoint with teachers Jacob Gimpel and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
Franz Waxman (December 24, 1906 – February 24, 1967) was a Jewish German American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films. Waxman was born Franz Wachsmann in Königshütte (Chorzów) in the German Empire's Prussian Province of Silesia. He orchestrated Frederick Hollander's score for the 1930 film Blue Angel (1930) and wrote original scores for several German films in the early 1930s.
Alex North (December 4, 1910 - September 8, 1991) was an American composer responsible for the first jazz-based film score (A Streetcar Named Desire). North was nominated for 15 Oscars, but did not win until receiving the lifetime achievement Academy Award in 1986. Among his many film scores are Spartacus, Cleopatra, Streetcar Named Desire, Death of A Salesman, Dragonslayer, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Viva Zapata.
Gabriel Yared (Arabic: جبرائيل يارد) (born 7 October 1949) is a Lebanese-French composer, best known for his work in French and American cinema. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, his work in France included the scores for Betty Blue and Camille Claudel. He later began working with American film directors, winning an Oscar for his score for The English Patient and a nomination for The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.
Giorgio Moroder (born Hansjörg Moroder on April 26, 1940 in Ortisei, Italy) is an Italian record producer, songwriter and performer, whose groundbreaking work with synthesizers during the 1970s was a significant influence on new wave, techno and electronic music in general. Particularly well known are Donna Summer's disco hits produced by Moroder, including "Love To Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love". Moroder also produced a number of electronic disco hits for The Three Degrees.
In his 60 years in the music business Ron Goodwin composed, arranged, orchestrated and conducted music in all fields of the profession. In his early years he arranged for all the leading orchestras of the day and arranged and conducted recording sessions for top vocal artists. He then recorded under his own name Ron Goodwin and His Concert Orchestra and became a top-selling artist in his own right. His first film score was Whirlpool in 1958 and during his lifetime he scored over 60 feature films.
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Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American composer, best known as the lead singer and songwriter for the rock band Oingo Boingo, from 1976 to 1995 and later for scoring music for television and film and creating The Simpsons main title theme as well as the 1989 Batman movie theme. He has scored the majority of the films for his long-time friend Tim Burton. Born in Los Angeles, he entered the film industry in 1976, initially as an actor. He made his film scoring debut in 1980 for the film Forbidden Zone directed by his older brother Richard Elfman.
Bernard Herrmann (June 29, 1911 – December 24, 1975) was an American composer noted for his work in motion pictures. In over forty scores Bernard Herrmann[ enriched the work of such directors as Orson Welles (Citizen Kane), Alfred Hitchcock (North By Northwest, Vertigo, Psycho, Marnie etc.), Francois Truffaut (Fahrenheit 451), and Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver). From his first film (Citizen Kane) to his last (Taxi Driver)...