National Film Registry Composers
by majfoalbkeopaza | created - 15 Jun 2018 | updated - 3 months ago | Public
1. Georges Delerue
Composer | Platoon
Georges Delerue was born on March 12, 1925 in Roubaix, Nord, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Platoon (1986), Twins (1988) and The Day of the Dolphin (1973). He was married to Micheline Gautron. He died on March 20, 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Platoon (1986) - 2019
2. Jerry Goldsmith
Composer | L.A. Confidential
Born on February 10, 1929, Jerry Goldsmith studied piano with Jakob Gimpel and composition, theory, and counterpoint with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He also attended classes in film composition given by Miklós Rózsa at the Univeristy of Southern California. In 1950, he was employed as a clerk ...
Lilies of the Field (1963) - 2020 Seconds (1966) - 2015 Planet of the Apes (1968) - 2001 Patton (1970) - 2003 Chinatown (1974) - 1991 Alien (1979) - 2002 Hoosiers (1986) - 2001 L.A. Confidential (1997) - 2015
3. James Horner
Music_department | Titanic
James Horner began studying piano at the age of five, and trained at the Royal College of Music in London, England, before moving to California in the 1970s. After receiving a bachelor's degree in music at USC, he would go on to earn his master's degree at UCLA and teach music theory there. He ...
Field of Dreams (1989) - 2017 Apollo 13 (1995) - 2023 Titanic (1997) - 2017
4. 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 ...
Touch of Evil (1958) - 1993 Imitation of Life (1959) - 2015 Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) - 2012 Days of Wine and Roses (1962) - 2018 Charade (1963) - 2022 The Pink Panther (1963) - 2010
5. 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 ...
Our Daily Bread (1934) - 2015 Dodsworth (1936) - 1990 The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) - 1991 Gunga Din (1939) - 1999 Wuthering Heights (1939) - 2007 Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) - 2003 The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - 1989 The Mark of Zorro (1940) - 2009 How Green Was My Valley (1941) - 1990 Ball of Fire (1941) - 2016 Why We Fight (1942) - 2000 The Gang's All Here (1943) - 2014 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) - 2010 Leave Her to Heaven (1945) - 2018 Gentleman's Agreement (1947) - 2017 Twelve O'Clock High (1949) - 1998 All About Eve (1950) - 1990 Flower Drum Song (1961) - 2008 How the West Was Won (1962) - 1997
6. Nino Rota
Composer | The Godfather
Born in Milan in 1911 into a family of musicians, Nino Rota was first a student of Orefice and Pizzetti. Then, still a child, he moved to Rome where he completed his studies at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1929 with Alfredo Casella. In the meantime, he had become an 'enfant prodige', famous...
The Godfather (1972) - 1990 The Godfather Part II (1974) - 1993
7. 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 ...
Double Indemnity (1944) - 1992 The Lost Weekend (1945) - 2011 The Killers (1946) - 2008 The Naked City (1948) - 2007 Adam's Rib (1949) - 1992 The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - 2008 Ben-Hur (1959) - 2004
8. 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 ...
King Kong (1933) - 1991 The Informer (1935) - 2018 The Life of Emile Zola (1937) - 2000 Jezebel (1938) - 2009 Gone with the Wind (1939) - 1989 Sergeant York (1941) - 2008 Now, Voyager (1942) - 2007 Casablanca (1942) - 1989 Why We Fight (1943) - 2000 Mildred Pierce (1945) - 1996 The Big Sleep (1946) - 1997 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - 1990 White Heat (1949) - 2003 This Is Cinerama (1952) - 2002 The Searchers (1956) - 1989
9. Franz Waxman
Composer | Sunset Blvd.
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 ...
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - 1998 Fury (1936) - 1995 Rebecca (1940) - 2018 The Philadelphia Story (1940) - 1995 Woman of the Year (1942) - 1999 Sunset Boulevard (1950) - 1989 A Place in the Sun (1951) - 1991 Rear Window (1954) - 1997
10. 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 ...
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) - 2010 Road to Morocco (1942) - 1996 Gun Crazy (1950) - 1998 The Quiet Man (1952) - 2013 Shane (1953) - 1993 Johnny Guitar (1954) - 2008
11. John Carpenter
Writer | The Fog
John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...
Halloween (1978) - 2006
12. Charles Chaplin
Writer | The Great Dictator
Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...
The Kid (1921)(1971) - 2011 The Gold Rush (1925)(1942) - 1992 City Lights (1931) - 1991 Modern Times (1936) - 1989 The Great Dictator (1940) - 1997
13. David Lynch
Writer | Twin Peaks
Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future ...
Eraserhead (1977) - 2004
14. John Barry
Soundtrack | Out of Africa
John Barry was born in York, England in 1933, and was the youngest of three children. His father, Jack, owned several local cinemas and by the age of fourteen, Barry was capable of running the projection box on his own - in particular, The Rialto in York. As he was brought up in a cinematic ...
Midnight Cowboy (1969) - 1994 Dances with Wolves (1990) - 2007
15. Francis Ford Coppola
Producer | Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...
Apocalypse Now (1979) - 2000
16. Danny Elfman
Music_department | The Nightmare Before Christmas
As Danny Elfman was growing up in the Los Angeles area, he was largely unaware of his talent for composing. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Danny and his older brother Richard Elfman started a musical troupe while in Paris; the group "Mystic Knights of Oingo-Boingo" was created for Richard's ...
17. D.W. Griffith
Director | The Birth of a Nation
David Wark Griffith was born in rural Kentucky to Jacob "Roaring Jake" Griffith, a former Confederate Army colonel and Civil War veteran. Young Griffith grew up with his father's romantic war stories and melodramatic nineteenth-century literature that were to eventually shape his movies. In 1897 ...
The Birth of a Nation (1915) - 1992
18. 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 ...
Why We Fight (1942) - 2000 Laura (1944) - 1999 Force of Evil (1948) - 1994 The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) - 2002 Scorpio Rising (1963) - 2022
19. Burt Bacharach
Soundtrack | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Burt Bacharach was a well known and multi award winning singer and song writer.
Over 1,000 different artists have recorded Bacharach's songs. From 1961 to 1972, most of Bacharach and David's hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick, but earlier associations (from 1957 to ...
20. 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, ...
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) - 2020 The Ten Commandments (1956) - 1999 Sweet Smell of Success (1957) - 1993 The Magnificent Seven (1960) - 2013 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - 1995 Hud (1963) - 2018 Powers of Ten (1977) - 1998 National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) - 2001 Airplane! (1980) - 2010 Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983) - 2009 Ghostbusters (1984) - 2015
21. Karen Black
Actress | Five Easy Pieces
Karen entered Northwestern University at 18 and left two years later. She studied under Lee Strasberg in New York and worked in a number of off-Broadway roles. She made a critically acclaimed debut on Broadway in 1965 in "The Playroom". Her first big film role was in You're a Big Boy Now (1966), ...
Nashville (1975) - 1992
22. Gary Busey
Actor | The Buddy Holly Story
A blond-haired, fair-complexioned actor with a toothy grin and capable of an unsettling glint in his eyes, Gary Busey was born in Goose Creek, Texas, and was raised in Oklahoma. He is the son of Sadie Virginia (Arnett), a homemaker, and Delmar Lloyd Busey, a construction design manager. He has ...
Nashville (1975) - 1992
23. Philip Glass
Soundtrack | The Truman Show
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Glass worked in his father's radio store and discovered music listening to the offbeat Western classical records customers didn't seem to want. He studied the violin and flute, and obtained early admission to the University of Chicago. After graduating in mathematics ...
Koyaanisqatsi (1982) - 2000 The Thin Blue Line (1988) - 2001 The Fog of War (2003) - 2019
24. Christopher Guest
Actor | This Is Spinal Tap
U.S.-born actor, director, writer, musician, and composer best known for his mockumentaries, poking fun at heavy metal music, small town theatre, dog shows, folk music and film-making itself, Christopher Haden-Guest was born February fifth, 1948, in New York City. His mother, Jean Pauline (Hindes),...
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) - 2002
25. Dudley Moore
Actor | Arthur
Dudley Moore, the gifted comedian who had at least three distinct career phases that brought him great acclaim and success, actually started out as a musical prodigy as a child. Moore -- born in Dagenham, Essex, England to working class parents in 1935 -- won a music scholarship to Magdalen College...
The Hole (1962) - 2013
26. Ennio Morricone
Composer | The Hateful Eight
A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first ...
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) - 2009 Days of Heaven (1978) - 2007
27. Edward James Olmos
Actor | Battlestar Galactica
Born February 24, 1947, in East Los Angeles, at The First Japanese Hospital to Pedro Olmos and Eleanor Huizar. Raised on Cheesebrough's Lane, he attended Greenwood Elementary and Montebello Junior High. He then graduated from Montebello High School in 1964. After which he received an Associative ...
28. Rob Reiner
Actor | All in the Family
Robert Reiner was born in New York City, to Estelle Reiner (née Lebost) and Emmy-winning actor, comedian, writer, and producer Carl Reiner.
As a child, his father was his role model, as Carl Reiner created and starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show. Estelle was also an inspiration for him to become a ...
This Is Spinal Tap (1984) - 2002
29. Hans Zimmer
Composer | Gladiator
German-born composer Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. He featured in the music video for The Buggles' single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to ...
Thelma & Louise (1991) - 2016 A League of Their Own (1992) - 2012 The Lion King (1994) - 2016 The Dark Knight (2008) - 2020 12 Years a Slave (2013) - 2023
30. Marco Beltrami
Composer | I, Robot
Marco Beltrami was born on October 7, 1966 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a composer and producer, known for I, Robot (2004), World War Z (2013) and Knowing (2009).
The Hurt Locker (2008) - 2020
31. Carter Burwell
Composer | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Carter Burwell was born on November 18, 1954 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Carol (2015) and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). He has been married to Christine Sciulli since 1999.
Fargo (1996) - 2006 The Big Lebowski (1998) - 2014
32. 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 ...
Citizen Kane (1941) - 1989 The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) - 1991 The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - 1995 Vertigo (1958) - 1989 The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) - 2008 North by Northwest (1959) - 1995 Psycho (1960) - 1992 Taxi Driver (1976) - 1994
33. Harold Arlen
Music_department | The Wizard of Oz
No American has written more first-rate songs than Arlen. He grew up in a musical family (his father was a cantor), and disappointed but didn't surprise his parents by dropping out of high school to become a musician. A stint as pianist and singer with a dance band, the Buffalodians, allowed him to...
The Wizard of Oz (1939) - 1989
34. 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 ...
35. William Axt
Composer | The Thin Man
Composer and conductor, educated at DeWitt Clinton High School, and in private music study in Berlin. He was the assistant conductor at the Hammerstein Grand Opera Company in New York, and conducted for Emma Trentini between 1914-1918. He was musical director at the Capitol Theatre in New York, and...
The Mark of Zorro (1920) - 2015 The Navigator (1924) - 2018 He Who Gets Slapped (1924) - 2017 Greed (1924) - 1991 The Big Parade (1925) - 1992 Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ (1925) - 1997 The Wind (1928) - 1993 Show People (1928) - 2003 Dinner at Eight (1933) - 2023 The Thin Man (1934) - 1997
36. Roy Webb
Composer | Notorious
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 ...
Becky Sharp (1935) - 2019 Bringing Up Baby (1938) - 1990 Cat People (1942) - 1993 Why We Fight (1943) - 2000 Notorious (1946) - 2006 Out of the Past (1947) - 1991 This Is Cinerama (1952) - 2002 Marty (1955) - 1994
37. Prince
Soundtrack | Under the Cherry Moon
Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Mattie Shaw, a jazz singer and social worker, and John L. Nelson, a lyricist and pianist. His father's stage name was "Prince Rogers". His parents were both from African-American families from Louisiana. They separated during his youth, ...
Purple Rain (1984) - 2019
38. Carl Davis
Composer | The General
Carl Davis was born on October 28, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for The General (1926), City Lights (1931) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). He was married to Jean Boht. He died on August 3, 2023 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK.
Intolerance (1916)(1989) - 1989 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)(1993) - 1995 Safety Last! (1923)(1990) - 1994 Greed (1924)(1986) - 1991 The Phantom of the Opera (1925)(1996) - 1998 The Big Parade (1925)(1988) - 1992 Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ (1925)(1987) - 1997 The Strong Man (1926)(1985) - 2007 Flesh and the Devil (1926)(1988) - 2006 The General (1926)(1987) - 1989 It (1927)(1992) - 2001 The Crowd (1928)(1981) - 1989 The Wind (1928)(1983) - 1993 Show People (1928)(1982) - 2003
39. Laurence Rosenthal
Composer | Clash of the Titans
Composer Laurence Rosenthal was born in Detroit, Michigan. He studied piano and composition at the Eastman School of Music and later with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. His symphonic compositions have been premiered by Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philarmonic, among others. He has composed ...
A Raisin in the Sun (1961) - 2005
40. Thomas Newman
Music_department | Skyfall
Thomas Newman is an American film score composer. He was born in Los Angeles. His father was notable film score composer Alfred Newman (1900-1970). The Newman family is of Russian-Jewish descent, and includes several other well-known musicians. Thomas' mother Martha Louis Montgomery (1920-2005) ...
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) - 2023 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) - 2015 WALL·E (2008) - 2021
41. John Williams
Composer | Jurassic Park
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 ...
The Long Goodbye (1973) - 2021 Jaws (1975) - 2001 Star Wars (1977) - 1989 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - 2007 Superman (1978) - 2017 The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - 2010 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - 1999 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - 1994 Return of the Jedi (1983) - 2021 Home Alone (1990) - 2023 Jurassic Park (1993) - 2018 Schindler's List (1993) - 2004 Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 2014
42. Miles Davis
Soundtrack | Adrift
Miles Davis, famous jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader, was born 26 May 1926 in Alton, Illinois. He moved to New York in 1944 and studied at Juilliard. He left school and entered the jazz society of New York, meeting such famous musicians as Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus. ...
43. Lee Holdridge
Composer | Old Gringo
Lee Holdridge was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is a composer, known for Old Gringo (1989), Splash (1983) and The Mists of Avalon (2001).
44. Barry Gibb
Soundtrack | Grease
If you were to try and summarize Barry Gibb's forty-five year career in the music industry in a single phrase you would probably come up with something such as "versatile". Barry Gibb continues to remain an important, relevant figure in the music industry due to his willingness to adapt his music, ...
Saturday Night Fever (1977) - 2010
45. Maurice Jarre
Composer | Lawrence of Arabia
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, ...
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - 1991
46. Brian Benison
Soundtrack | Paris, je t'aime
Brian Benison is known for Paris, I Love You (2006), Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002) and Boat Trip (2002).
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)(1991) - 2016
47. Stanley Myers
Composer | The Witches
Stanley Myers was born on October 6, 1930 in Birmingham, England, UK. He was a composer, known for The Witches (1990), The Deer Hunter (1978) and Prick Up Your Ears (1987). He was married to Brigitta Stroeh and Eleanor Fazan. He died on November 9, 1993 in London, England, UK.
The Deer Hunter (1978) - 1996
48. Michael Kamen
Soundtrack | Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Michael Kamen was born on April 15, 1948 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Don Juan DeMarco (1994) and X-Men (2000). He was married to Sandra Keenan. He died on November 18, 2003 in London, England, UK.
Die Hard (1988) - 2017
49. Harry Gregson-Williams
Composer | Shrek
Harry Gregson-Williams is one of Hollywood's most sought-after and prolific composers whose long list of film and television credits underscore the diverse range of his talents. He most recently wrote the music for "The Last Duel" and "House of Gucci" both directed by Ridley Scott. In addition, he ...
Shrek (2001) - 2020
50. Robert Israel
Composer | The General
Robert Israel was born on April 30, 1963 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a composer and producer, known for The General (1926), Sherlock Jr. (1924) and Les vampires (1915).
A Corner in Wheat (1909)(????) - 1994 The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)(????) - 2016 The Cheat (1915)(1994) - 1993 Tol'able David (1921)(1999) - 2007 The Navigator (1924)(1995) - 2018 Greed (1924)(1999) - 1991 The Lost World (1925)(2000) - 1998 The Freshman (1925)(2002) - 1990 Mighty Like a Moose (1926)(1998) - 2007 The General (1926)(1995) - 1989 The Last Command (1928)(2010) - 2006 The Docks of New York (1928)(2010) - 1999 Big Business (1929)(2011) - 1992
51. Isaac Hayes
Actor | Escape from New York
Isaac Hayes, the second-born child of Eula and Isaac Hayes Sr., was raised by his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wade Sr. The child of a poor family, he grew up picking cotton in Covington, Tennessee. He dropped out of high school, but later his former high-school teachers to get his diploma, ...
Shaft (1971) - 2000
52. Quincy Jones
Producer | The Color Purple
Considered to be one of the greatest minds in music and television history, Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. was born on March 14, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the son of Sarah Frances (Wells), a bank executive, and Quincy Delight Jones, Sr., a carpenter.
Jones found his love for music while he was ...
The Pawnbroker (1964) - 2008 In the Heat of the Night (1967) - 2002 In Cold Blood (1967) - 2008
53. Randy Newman
Soundtrack | The Princess and the Frog
Randy Newman is an American film composer and singer who is well-known for composing The Princess and the Frog, Meet the Parents and various Pixar films including the Toy Story, Monsters, Inc and Cars franchises as well as A Bug's Life. He wrote iconic songs such as "Short People", "You've Got A ...
Toy Story (1995) - 2005
54. Carlos Santana
Soundtrack | La Bamba
Carlos Santana is a Mexican guitarist, composer, singer and band-leader who helped to shape the concept of "world music" by his experiments with blending many styles of music from a multitude of ethnic sources.
He was born Carlos Augusto Alves Santana on July 20, 1947, in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco,...
La Bamba (1987) - 2017
55. Daniele Amfitheatrof
Soundtrack | Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
A well-respected conductor and composer, who arrived in the US in 1937 and became a citizen in 1944. His education included studies with Wladimir Tscherbachev, Otto Respighi, and Jaroslav Krichka in the Conservatory and Pontifical Academy of Sacred Music of Vatican in Rome. He was assistant ...
Lassie Come Home (1943) - 1993 Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) - 1992
56. 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, ...
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) - 2010 In a Lonely Place (1950) - 2007
57. 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 ...
Roman Holiday (1953) - 1999
58. George Bassman
Music_department | The Wizard of Oz
Composer and songwriter ("I'm Getting Sentimental Over You", the Tommy Dorsey theme), conductor and arranger, he was educated at the Boston Conservatory and studied with Toch and Strelitzer. Between 1931-1934 he arranged for dance orchestras, and then for Andre Kostelanetz and CBS between 1934-1936...
Cabin in the Sky (1943) - 2020 Ride the High Country (1962) - 1992
59. Les Baxter
Soundtrack | Wild at Heart
Born March 14, 1922, at Mexia, Texas. He learned to play the piano at five years of age and studied at the Detroit Conservatory and at Pepperdine College in Los Angeles, California (his uncle was the college's first president). He began his career as a concert pianist but later joined Mel Tormé's "...
House of Usher (1960) - 2005
60. Terence Blanchard
Composer | BlacKkKlansman
A world renowned trumpeter/composer/band leader and Blue Note recording artist, Terence Blanchard is the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for motion pictures. Blanchard was born and raised in New Orleans where he studied with the Marsalis brothers at the famed New Orleans Center for the ...
Malcolm X (1992) - 2010 4 Little Girls (1997) - 2017 Eve's Bayou (1997) - 2018 Love & Basketball (2000) - 2023 Bamboozled (2000) - 2023
61. Claude Bolling
Soundtrack | The Holiday
Claude Bolling was born on April 10, 1930 in Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France. He was a composer and actor, known for The Holiday (2006), Joker (2019) and He Died with His Eyes Open (1985). He was married to Irène Dervize-Sadyker. He died on December 29, 2020 in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
The Navigator (1924)(1969) - 2018
62. Scott Bradley
Soundtrack | Outbreak
Walter Scott Bradley was a legendary composer for animated cartoons, namely from the 1920s to the 1950s. He was born on November 26, 1891 in Russellville, Arkansas. Piano was his specialty. Bradley noted that he started out performing a theaters and conductions in Houston, Texas. In 1926, he moved ...
Magical Maestro (1952) - 1993 Blackboard Jungle (1955) - 2016
63. Roy Budd
Music_department | Get Carter
Born on the 14th March, 1947, Roy Budd the musician was entirely self-taught, and was hailed as a child prodigy. At the age of four he began to play the piano, initially by ear and then by copying various melodies he heard by listening to the radio. By the age of six he had appeared in public at ...
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)(1993) - 1998
64. Ralph Burns
Music_department | All That Jazz
Songwriter ("Early Autumn", "Bijou"), bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and pianist, educated at the New England Conservatory. He studied piano with Marion Deviney. He was a pianist and arranger for the Charlie Barnet orchestra, and later with Woody Herman for seven years. He arranged for ...
Cabaret (1972) - 1995 All That Jazz (1979) - 2001
65. David Buttolph
Music_department | The Three Musketeers
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 ...
The Mark of Zorro (1940) - 2009 House of Wax (1953) - 2014
66. Gerard Carbonara
Music_department | The Gold Rush
Composer, conductor and violinist, educated at the National Conservatory in New York (on a scholarship) and at the Naples Conservatory. He also studied with Martucci Dworczak. He was an opera coach in Milan in 1910, and a concert violinist and opera conductor throughout Europe and the United States...
Stagecoach (1939) - 1995
67. Stanley Clarke
Composer | Boyz n the Hood
Four-time Grammy Award Winner Stanley Clarke has attained "living legend" status during his over 40-year career as a bass virtuoso. He is the first bassist in history who doubles on acoustic and electric bass with equal ferocity and the first jazz-fusion bassist ever to headline tours, selling out ...
Boyz n the Hood (1991) - 2002
68. Michel Colombier
Soundtrack | Man on Fire
Michel Colombier was born on May 23, 1939 in Lyon, Rhône, France. He was a composer, known for Man on Fire (2004), The Golden Child (1986) and Against All Odds (1984). He was married to Dana Colombier. He died on November 14, 2004 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
Purple Rain (1984) - 2019
69. Bill Conti
Soundtrack | Rocky
Bill Conti was born on April 13, 1942 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for Rocky (1976), For Your Eyes Only (1981) and The Karate Kid Part II (1986). He is married to Shelby Cox. They have two children.
Rocky (1976) - 2006 The Right Stuff (1983) - 2013 Broadcast News (1987) - 2018
70. Alexander Courage
Music_department | Star Trek
Alexander Courage was born on December 10, 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Star Trek (1966), Jurassic Park (1993) and Star Trek: Generations (1994). He was married to Shirley Pumpelly. He died on May 15, 2008 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
The Band Wagon (1953) - 1995
71. Mason Daring
Music_department | The Opposite of Sex
Mason Daring was born on September 21, 1949 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for The Opposite of Sex (1998), Where the Heart Is (2000) and Something's Gotta Give (2003).
Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980) - 1997 Matewan (1987) - 2023
72. Frank De Vol
Soundtrack | Meng long guo jiang
Frank DeVol was born to Herman Frank DeVol and Minnie Emma (Humphreys) DeVol in Moundsville, West Virginia, on September 20, 1911 and grew up in Canton, Ohio. His father had a "pit" orchestra at the local movie house, and his mother had a sewing shop in Canton. His father was also an accountant. ...
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) - 1999 Pillow Talk (1959) - 2009 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) - 2021 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - 2017
73. 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 ...
The Wedding March (1930) - 2003 The Maltese Falcon (1941) - 1989 The Band Wagon (1953) - 1995 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) - 2004 Some Like It Hot (1959) - 1989 The Apartment (1960) - 1994
74. Robert Emmett Dolan
Producer | White Christmas
Composer, songwriter ("A Home in the Meadow"), film executive and conductor, educated at Loyola College (on scholarship) and a piano student of his mother, and later, Letonal, Mortimer Wilson, Joseph Schillinger, and Ernst Toch. He became music director for MGM in 1941, and also was the music ...
Going My Way (1944) - 2004
75. Pino Donaggio
Composer | Dressed to Kill
Born in Burano (Venice) in 1941, Pino Donaggio studied violin at the Conservatory of Venice and Milan.
After a period of adolescent performer of classical music with the Solisti Veneti and the Soloists of Milan, in 1959 he began to devote himself to the pop music that soon led to international ...
Carrie (1976) - 2022
76. 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 ...
From Here to Eternity (1953) - 2002 3:10 to Yuma (1957) - 2012
77. Antonio Díaz Conde
Composer | Pueblerina
Antonio Díaz Conde was a composer, known for Pueblerina (1949), The Pearl (1947) and Las tres perfectas casadas (1953). He died on December 31, 1976.
La perla (1947) - 2002
78. George Fenton
Composer | Groundhog Day
George Fenton was born on October 19, 1949 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. He is a composer and actor, known for Groundhog Day (1993), Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998) and The Bounty Hunter (2010).
Groundhog Day (1993) - 2006
79. Brad Fiedel
Music_department | True Lies
Extremely talented, prolific and versatile composer Brad Fiedel was born on March 10, 1951 in New York City. His mother was a dancer and his father was a composer and musician. Brad started out as a keyboardist for Hall & Oates. Fiedel first began composing music for movies in the mid-70s for such ...
The Terminator (1984) - 2008 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - 2023
80. Jerry Fielding
Composer | The Wild Bunch
A three-time Oscar nominee, Jerry Fielding was among the boldest and most experimental of all Hollywood film composers. His music typically utilized advanced compositional procedures, producing dense, often richly dissonant orchestral textures, sometimes flavored with jazz. Fielding's film music ...
The Wild Bunch (1969) - 1999 The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) - 1996
81. Milt Franklyn
Soundtrack | Arthur
Composer and conductor for Warner Brothers cartoons since 1935, educated at the University of Utah, the University of California, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was Master of Ceremonies for Fanchon and Marco between 1927 and 1930, and then for Paramount Publix and Loews between 1931 and ...
One Froggy Evening (1955) - 2003
82. Gerald Fried
Soundtrack | Star Trek Into Darkness
Composer, author and oboist, educated at Juilliard (BS). He was first oboist for the Dallas Symphony and the New York Little Orchestra between 1948 and 1956. Then he joined Revue Studios in California, lasting until 1960, thereafter working freelance. Joining ASCAP in 1956, his chief musical ...
Paths of Glory (1957) - 1992
83. 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 ...
The Mark of Zorro (1940) - 2009 Why We Fight (1942) - 2000 The Gang's All Here (1943) - 2014 Gilda (1946) - 2013 The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - 1989 Ace in the Hole (1951) - 2017 One-Eyed Jacks (1961) - 2018
84. 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 "...
Porgy and Bess (1959)(1935) - 2011
85. Irving Gertz
Music_department | Dragnet
A prolific composer, arranger, pianist, clarinetist, string bassist and tuba player who was most closely associated with Columbia, 20th Century-Fox and Universal studios. After studying at the Providence (Rhode Island) College of Music and privately with instructor-author Walter Piston, he began ...
86. Albert Glasser
Composer | The Amazing Colossal Man
One of the most prolific B-movie composers, Albert Glasser started off as a copyist in the music department at Warner Brothers in the late 1930s, learning the art of film scoring from scratch while working under such big guns as Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. He graduated to orchestrating...
The Negro Soldier (1944) - 2011
87. 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.
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) - 2013
88. Miles Goodman
Composer | Little Shop of Horrors
Goodman attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. (There is now a scholarship there bearing his name.) At Antioch, he was an English major. Goodman studied Shakespeare in London and originally desired to be a director. He studied with private music teachers including Albert Harris and ...
La Bamba (1987) - 2017
89. Dave Grusin
Music_department | The Fabulous Baker Boys
Dave Grusin was born on June 26, 1934 in Littleton, Colorado, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Firm (1993) and The Graduate (1967). He was previously married to Edith Ruth Price, Sara Jane Tallman and Barbara Jo Davidson.
Tootsie (1982) - 1998 The Goonies (1985) - 2017 Selena (1997) - 2021
90. Manos Hatzidakis
Soundtrack | Pote tin Kyriaki
The names of Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis have been written with golden letters in the music history of Greece since 1960. He was born in Xanthi on 23 October 1925, in a mid-class family. When he came of age he came in the capital city of Greece of Athens. He succeeded from the beginning ...
America America (1963) - 2001
91. W. Franke Harling
Music_department | Stagecoach
Songwriter ("Beyond the Blue Horizon", "Sing You Sinners"), composer and conductor, educated at the Grace Church Choir School in New York and the London Academy of Music. He was also a music student of Theodore Ysaye. His career included being chief organist at the Church of the Resurrecion in ...
92. Lennie Hayton
Music_department | Singin' in the Rain
Composer, MGM music director (1940-1953), conductor, arranger and pianist in the jazz groups of 'Frankie Trumbauer', Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, Joe Venuti and others. He was also with the Paul Whiteman orchestra. He also was music director for Lena Horne, his wife. Joining ASCAP in 1953, his ...
Singin' in the Rain (1952) - 1989
93. Ray Heindorf
Music_department | The Music Man
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 ...
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) - 1993 A Star Is Born (1954) - 2000 The Music Man (1962) - 2005
94. Werner R. Heymann
Composer | To Be or Not to Be
Werner Richard Heymann was active as a classical composer in Berlin from 1912. By the end of the decade, he also wrote songs for cabaret and served as musical director for Max Reinhardt from 1918 to 1919. In films with Ufa from 1923, he initially worked as assistant to the head of the music ...
Ninotchka (1939) - 1990 The Shop Around the Corner (1940) - 1999 To Be or Not to Be (1942) - 1996 Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) - 2015
95. 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...
Midnight (1939) - 2013 Born Yesterday (1950) - 2012
96. Kenyon Hopkins
Music_department | 12 Angry Men
Kenyon Hopkins was born on January 15, 1912 in Coffeyville, Kansas, USA. He was a composer, known for 12 Angry Men (1957), The Hustler (1961) and East Side/West Side (1963). He died on April 7, 1983 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
12 Angry Men (1957) - 2007 Wild River (1960) - 2002 The Hustler (1961) - 1997
97. James Newton Howard
Music_department | King Kong
James Newton Howard attended the University of Southern California's music school, but dropped out to tour with Elton John, and eventually compose music for film and television. He started with Head Office (1985) in 1985. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards. He currently is a songwriter, ...
The Dark Knight (2008) - 2020
98. Mark Isham
Composer | Crash
From his days as one of the pioneering icons of electronic music to his current status as a world-renowned legendary film composer, Mark Isham continues to be one of the most prolific and provocative artists on the scene. His gift for creating unforgettable melodies and his love of fresh, ...
99. Laurie Johnson
Composer | Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Prolific British composer who has written scores for over four hundred film and television series. Very much of the old school of film composers, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and his scores reflect this classical training in their complexity. The trademark Johnson sound is the...
100. 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 ...
Gaslight (1944) - 2019 The Naked Spur (1953) - 1997
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