Favourite Classic Film Music Composers
by mister_gs | created - 31 Aug 2012 | updated - 08 Apr 2019 | PublicNo ranking, just sorted First Name / Family Name. Except Bronislau Kaper who for sure was a great composer. Personal favourites are almost impossible to choose since we have so many superb composers here. Thanks for checking, enjoy.
1. Bronislau Kaper
Composer | Mutiny on the Bounty
Born: February 5, 1902 in Warsaw, Poland Died: April 25, 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA Kaper displayed musical talent as early as the age of seven when his family acquired a piano. His inclination to music led him to study both piano and composition, while also taking courses in law to ...
2. Aaron Copland
Soundtrack | He Got Game
Aaron Copland is an Academy Award-winning composer (The Heiress (1949)), author, conductor, lecturer and educator. He was educated at public schools and was a music student of his sister and later Leopold Wolfson, Victor Wittgenstein, Clarence Adler, Rubin Goldmark and Nadia Boulanger. In 1925, he ...
3. Adolph Deutsch
Music_department | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
London-born piano child prodigy Adolph Deutsch trained at the Royal Academy of Music from the age of eight and composed his first piece, a waltz for piano, entitled "La Charmeuse", two years later. He moved to the U.S. in 1910 and got his first job working for a publishing house, during which time ...
4. Alessandro Cicognini
Composer | Ladri di biciclette
Alessandro Cicognini was born on January 15, 1906 in Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy. He was a composer and writer, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), Forrest Gump (1994) and Umberto D. (1952). He died on November 9, 1995 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
5. Alex North
Music_department | Spartacus
Alex North studied music at the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia, then won a scholarship to Juilliard in New York (1929) and the Moscow Conservatoire (1933), making him the first-ever American to become a member of the Union of Soviet Composers. In Europe, he worked as music director for the ...
6. Alfred Newman
Music_department | The King and I
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 ...
7. Anton Karas
Soundtrack | Brick
Anton Karas was a mere entertainer in an Heurige (Viennese Wine Bar), but Carol Reed selected him as the musical director of "The Third Man" (1949). He was invited to London and lived with Reed. Reed treated him very well, but Karas was in a slump - then suddenly Reed rushed into Karas' room, and ...
8. Benjamin Frankel
Composer | Battle of the Bulge
Composer, conductor, arranger and music director. Trained Cologne, Berlin and London (at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama). From the age of seventeen, earned a living as a jazz fiddler, pianist and arranger in, among others, Carroll Gibbons' Savoy Orpheans and Henry Hall's BBC Dance ...
9. Bernard Herrmann
Composer | North by Northwest
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 ...
10. Bernhard Kaun
Music_department | The Adventures of Mark Twain
Bernhard Kaun was an American film score composer and orchestrator, primarily active from the early 1930s to the late 1950s. He is primarily remembered by horror fans for composing the score of the gothic horror film "Frankenstein" (1931). Kaun served for over a decade at Warner Bros., and composed...
11. Bert Shefter
Soundtrack | In America
Russian-born pianist and film composer Bert Shefter completed his training at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Damrosch Institute. He enjoyed his first success as half of the piano duo Shefter & Gould (with pianist Morton Gould), arranging and interpreting classical music, from "Flight of the ...
12. Cole Porter
Soundtrack | At Long Last Love
Cole Porter was born June 9, 1891, at Peru, Indiana, the son of pharmacist Samuel Fenwick Porter and Kate Cole. Cole was raised on a 750-acre fruit ranch. Kate Cole married Samuel Porter in 1884 and had two children, Louis and Rachel, who both died in infancy. Porter's grandfather, J.G. Cole, was a...
13. Cyril J. Mockridge
Music_department | Guys and Dolls
Cyril J. Mockridge was born on August 6, 1896 in London, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Guys and Dolls (1955), My Darling Clementine (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947). He was married to Betty J Mockridge. He died on January 18, 1979 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
14. David Raksin
Soundtrack | Captain America: The First Avenger
David Raksin's father Isidore, who both conducted and owned a music store, taught his son to play piano as well as woodwind instruments at an early age. He eventually studied music with Arnold Schönberg, but became by-and-large a self-taught multi-instrumentalist (organ and percussion), as well as ...
15. David Snell
Soundtrack | Deadpool
David Snell was born on September 10, 1897 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was a writer and composer, known for Deadpool (2016), Black Dynamite (2009) and The Edge of Night (1956). He died on March 27, 1967 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
16. Dimitri Tiomkin
Soundtrack | High Noon
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 ...
17. Elmer Bernstein
Composer | Far from Heaven
Elmer Bernstein was educated at the Walden School and New York University. He served in the US Army Air Corps in World War II, writing scores for the service radio unit. He also wrote and arranged musical numbers for Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band. A prolific and respected film music composer, ...
18. Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Composer | The Adventures of Robin Hood
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 ...
19. Ernest Gold
Music_department | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Ernest Gold was born on July 13, 1921 in Vienna, Austria. He was a composer, known for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Exodus (1960) and On the Beach (1959). He was married to Jeanette (Jan) Keller, Marni Nixon and Ruth Andree Golbin. He died on March 17, 1999 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
20. Ezio Carabella
Composer | Il serpente a sonagli
Ezio Carabella was born on March 3, 1891 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a composer, known for The Serpent's Fang (1935), Il prigioniero del re (1954) and Grattacieli (1943). He died on April 19, 1964 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
21. Frank Loesser
Soundtrack | Where's Charley?
Frank Loesser was educated at Townsend Harris Hall; CCNY. He wrote songs for college shows, and worked as a newspaper reporter, a pianist and singer, a caricaturist in vaudeville acts, and as an editor for a trade newspaper. While serving as an officer in the US Army during World War II, he wrote ...
22. Frank Skinner
Composer | Saboteur
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 ...
23. Franz Waxman
Composer | Sunset Boulevard
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 ...
24. Friedrich Hollaender
Music_department | Sabrina
Friedrich Hollaender was the son of the composer Victor Hollaender, who composed shows in Berlin in the 1890s to 1910s. Frederick received early musical training, since 1913 he was student of opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck (who composed Hänsel und Gretel). He started as repetitor at a theater...
25. George Antheil
Composer | In a Lonely Place
Composer and pianist, educated at the Curtis Music Settlement School. He studied with Constantin von Sternberg, Ernest Bloch and Clark Smith under a Guggenheim Fellowship. In Europe, he gave piano recitals between 1921-1926. He wrote incidental music to the play "Oedipus". Besides his film music, ...
26. George Duning
Composer | From Here to Eternity
George Duning was educated in Cincinnati, Ohio, and during his early 20s played trumpet and piano for the Kay Kyser band, later arranging most of the music for Kyser's popular "Kollege of Musical Knowledge" radio program. It was during the Kyser band's appearance in Carolina Moon (1940) that ...
27. George Gershwin
Soundtrack | Manhattan
He was born Jacob Gershowitz, 26 September 1898, in Brooklyn, New York, of Russian-Jewish immigrants. As a boy he could play popular and classical works on his brother Ira's piano by ear. In 1913 he quit school to study music and began composing for Tin Pan Alley; by 1919 he had his first hit "...
28. George Stoll
Music_department | Meet Me in St. Louis
George Stoll was born on May 7, 1902 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Anchors Aweigh (1945). He died on January 18, 1985 in Monterey, California, USA.
29. Georges Auric
Composer | Le salaire de la peur
At the least George Auric was a fine musician, having been a child prodigy, but he was much more in the musical world. He studied under Vincent D'Indy (a devotee of Cesar Franck and the German school of symphonic composition) and attended the Paris Conservatory (1920). By the time he was 20 he had ...
30. Gottfried Huppertz
Composer | Metropolis
Gottfried Huppertz was born on March 11, 1887 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He was a composer and actor, known for Metropolis (1927), Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924) and Le domino vert (1935). He died on February 7, 1937 in Berlin, Germany.
31. Harry Sukman
Composer | The High Chaparral
Harry Sukman was born on December 2, 1912 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a composer, known for The High Chaparral (1967), Song Without End (1960) and Fanny (1961). He was married to Francesca Paley. He died on December 2, 1984 in Palm Springs, California, USA.
32. Henry Mancini
Soundtrack | Breakfast at Tiffany's
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, but brought up in Pennsylvania, where he played the flute in a local band, as a youth, before sending some arrangements to Benny Goodman. Goodman offered him a job and, after serving in WWII, he joined the rearranged Glenn Miller band. In 1952, he was given a two-week ...
33. Hugo Friedhofer
Composer | The Best Years of Our Lives
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 ...
34. Jack Marshall
Soundtrack | Hubie Halloween
Jack Marshall was born on November 23, 1921 in El Dorado, Kansas, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Hubie Halloween (2020), The Munsters (2022) and The Giant Gila Monster (1959). He was married to Eva Katherine Pellegrini. He died on September 20, 1973 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
35. Jule Styne
Soundtrack | Funny Girl
Jule Styne was born on December 31, 1905 in London, England, UK. He was a composer and producer, known for Funny Girl (1968), Die Hard (1988) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). He was married to Margaret Ann Bissett Brown and Ethel Rubenstein. He died on September 20, 1994 in New York City, New ...
36. Leigh Harline
Composer | Pinocchio
Academy Award-winning composer (score, Pinocchio (1940), conductor, songwriter ("When You Wish Upon a Star" [Academy award, Best Song, 1940) and arranger Leigh Harine was educated at the University of Utah. He was a music student of J. Spencer Cornwall. He arranged the first transcontinental ...
37. Leith Stevens
Composer | The War of the Worlds
Leith Stevens was born on September 13, 1909 in Mount Moriah, Missouri, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for The War of the Worlds (1953), Destination Moon (1950) and Julie (1956). He was married to Mary McCoy and Elizabeth Stevens. He died on July 23, 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
38. Leonard Rosenman
Composer | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Leonard Rosenman was born on September 7, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Barry Lyndon (1975) and The Lord of the Rings (1978). He was married to Judie Gregg, Lyn Furr, Kay Scott and Adele Bracker. He died on March 4...
39. Lionel Hampton
Soundtrack | Allied
Lionel Hampton is an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader.
Hampton was born in Louisville, Kentucky and was raised by his grandmother. In the 1920s, he took xylophone lessons and began playing drums and later flute and percussion at Holy Rosary Academy near Chicago. ...
40. Lionel Newman
Music_department | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Lionel Newman was the youngest of a triumvirate of accomplished virtuosos, composers and conductors, who dominated the music department at 20th Century Fox for more than four decades. Already a highly regarded pianist by the age of 15, Lionel went on the national vaudeville circuit as accompanist ...
41. Malcolm Arnold
Composer | The Bridge on the River Kwai
Born in Northampton on 21st October 1921, Malcolm Arnold studied composition with Gordon Jacob and trumpet with Ernest Hall at the Royal College of Music. In 1941 he joined the trumpet section of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming principal by 1943. After two years of war service and one ...
42. Maurice Jaubert
Soundtrack | Frances Ha
Maurice Jaubert was born on January 3, 1900 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Frances Ha (2012), L'Atalante (1934) and Port of Shadows (1938). He was married to Marthe Poidlouë. He died on June 19, 1940 in Azerailles, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France.
43. Max Steiner
Composer | Casablanca
Austrian composer Max Steiner achieved legendary status as the creator of hundreds of classic American film scores. He was born Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner in Vienna, Austria, the son of Marie Mizzi (Hasiba) and Gabor Steiner, an impresario, and the grandson of actor and theater director and ...
44. Michel Magne
Music_department | Gigot
Michel Magne was born on March 20, 1930 in Lisieux, Calvados, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Gigot (1962), S.A.S. San Salvador (1982) and The Sleeping Car Murder (1965). He died on December 19, 1984 in Cergy-Pontoise, Val-d'Oise, France.
45. Miklós Rózsa
Composer | Ben-Hur
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 ...
46. Paul J. Smith
Composer | Pinocchio
Paul J. Smith was the son of Joseph J. and Anna M. Smith of Caldwell, Idaho. Joseph J. Smith was the band director at the College of Idaho for many years and was penned by Idaho's former governor Robert Smylie as "The Father of Music" in the Boise Valley, as he taught all musical instruments.
My ...
47. Paul Sawtell
Soundtrack | In America
Polish-born composer and violinist, under contract at RKO from 1938. Sawtell was initially hired as a writer of music for serialised B-pictures, which included the 'Mexican Spitfire' and 'Falcon' series. In the 1940s, he free-lanced for two of the so-called Poverty Row studios (Eagle-Lion and ...
48. Richard Hageman
Music_department | Stagecoach
Composer, songwriter, conductor and pianist, educated at the Brussels Conservatory (Mus. D.) and the Royal Conservatory of Amsterdam, on scholarships. He was a concert pianist at six and accompanist for the Royal Opera Company in Amsterdam, assuming the conductorship in 1899. Coming to the USA with...
49. Robert Russell Bennett
Music_department | Oklahoma!
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 ...
50. Robert Van Eps
Soundtrack | The Curse of La Llorona
Robert Van Eps was born on March 9, 1909 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA. He was a composer, known for The Curse of La Llorona (2019), The Outer Limits (1963) and Hero's Island (1962). He died in March 1986 in Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, USA(undisclosed).
51. Roger Edens
Soundtrack | On the Town
Roger Edens was born on November 9, 1905 in Hillsboro, Texas, USA. He was a producer and composer, known for On the Town (1949), Strike Up the Band (1940) and Funny Face (1957). He died on July 13, 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
52. Victor Young
Composer | Around the World in Eighty Days
Violinist and conductor Victor Young was a prolific composer and arranger, who worked on more than 300 film scores over a period of twenty years. He came from an impoverished, but musical background and was trained on the violin at the Warsaw Imperial Conservatory, later studying piano in Paris ...
53. William Walton
Soundtrack | Last Action Hero
William Walton came from a musical family. He entered Christ Church, Oxford at the early age of sixteen but left without a degree in 1920. A fine musician, he was essentially self-taught as a composer, except some instruction from Hugh Allen, the cathedral organist. Through literary friends and ...
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