Alfred Newman
Birth:  Mar. 17, 1901 North Haven New Haven County Connecticut, USA Death:  Feb. 17, 1970 Hollywood Los Angeles County California, USA Composer. One of Hollywood's most prolific and versatile film scorers, he had a seemingly inexhaustible gift for melody and did brilliant work in every conceivable genre. He was also an outstanding conductor. Newman received more Oscar nominations (45) than any other musician to date, and took home the award nine times, for "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1938), "Tin Pan Alley" (1940), "The Song of Bernadette" (1943), "Mother Wore Tights" (1947), "With a Song in My Heart" (1952), "Call Me Madam" (1953), "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" (1955), "The King and I" (adaptation, 1956), and "Camelot" (adaptation, 1967). He was associated with some 260 films during his 40-year career. His other classic credits include "Whoopee" (1930), "Arrowsmith" (1931), "Our Daily Bread" (1934), "Dodsworth" (1936), "The Hurricane" (1937), "Stella Dallas" (1937), "You Only Live Once" (1937), "Dead End" (1937), "Wuthering Heights" (1939), "Young Mr. Lincoln" (1939), "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939), "Gunga Din" (1939), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1939), "The Rains Came" (1939), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), "Foreign Correspondent" (1940), "Tobacco Road" (1941), "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), "The Razor's Edge" (1946), "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), "The Snake Pit" (1948), "A Letter to Three Wives" (1948), "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949), "All About Eve" (1950), "The Gunfighter" (1950), "How to Marry a Millionaire" (1953), "The Robe" (1953), "The Seven-Year Itch" (1955), "Anastasia" (1956), "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1959), and "How the West Was Won" (1962). Newman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He made his concert debut as a pianist at age seven and at 19 became Broadway's youngest conductor when showman George White hired him to lead his "Scandals" revues. In 1930 producer Samuel Goldwyn lured him to Hollywood. Along with Max Steiner, Newman revolutionized musical soundtracks of the early talkie era. His work for director King Vidor's "Street Scene" (1931) resulted in the first great film score. The bluesy title theme is famous, but the woodwind "nocturne," the skillful use of ambient noise, and especially the deft underscoring of the murder scene were all pointers to the future. As music director of 20th Century-Fox from 1939 to 1960, he built the Fox orchestra into the finest in the business and was a vigorous champion of younger composers (notably Bernard Herrmann and David Raksin). His last score, for "Airport" (1970), was completed a few weeks before his death at 68 from emphysema. Considering the breadth and scope of Newman's music, it is somewhat ironic that his best-known piece is only half a minute long. In 1935 he composed the stirring fanfare that has opened nearly every 20th Century-Fox film since. The effectiveness of this little orchestral flourish prompted other studios to commission musical logos (Steiner wrote one for Warner Bros., Franz Waxman for MGM), but Newman's has proved the most durable. He was the brother of Oscar-winning composer Lionel Newman, the father of composers Thomas Newman, David Newman, and Maria Newman, and the uncle of singer-songwriter-composer Randy Newman. Family links:  Parents:   Luba Koskoff Newman (1883 - 1954)  Spouses:   Mary Lou Dix Sharpe (1914 - 1963)   Martha Louis Montgomery Newman (1920 - 2005)  Siblings:   Alfred Newman (1901 - 1970)   Emil Newman (1910 - 1984)*   Lionel Newman (1916 - 1989)* *Calculated relationship