Dimitri Tiomkin
Birth:  May 10, 1894, Russian Federation Death:  Nov. 11, 1979 London Greater London, England Composer. One of the giants of Hollywood movie music. Although he did memorable work in all kinds of films, this Russian-born and trained musician is best-known for his westerns, where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact. Tiomkin received 22 Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar four times: two (Best Score and Best Song) for "High Noon" (1952), and for the scores of "The High and the Mighty" (1954) and "The Old Man and the Sea" (1958). His other classic credits include "Lost Horizon" (1937), "You Can't Take It With You" (1938), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), "Only Angels Have Wings" (1939), "The Westerner" (1940), "Meet John Doe" (1941), "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943), Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" World War II documentary series (1943 to 1944), "Dillinger" (1945), "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), "Duel in the Sun" (1946), "Red River" (1948), "Portrait of Jennie" (1948), "Champion" (1949), "D. O. A." (1950), "The Men" (1950), "Strangers on a Train" (1951), "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1951), "The Well" (1950), "The Thing" (1951), "The Big Sky" (1952), "I Confess" (1952), "Dial M for Murder" (1954), "Giant" (1956), "Friendly Persuasion" (1956), "Gunfight at the O. K. Corral" (1957), "Rio Bravo" (1959), "The Alamo" (1960), "The Sundowners" (1960), "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), "55 Days at Peking" (1963), "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964), and "The War Wagon" (1967). He also wrote the theme for tv's "Rawhide."  Dimitri Zinovich Tiomkin was born in Kremenchuck, Ukraine, and studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He launched a career as a concert pianist after fleeing the Russian Revolution in 1918. In 1928 he gave the European premiere of George Gershwin's "Concerto in F," with the composer in attendance. Around this time he settled in the United States and became naturalized in 1937. A shrewd businessman, Tiomkin worked as a free-agent at studios ranging from MGM to Monogram, fought for better pay and residuals for musicians, and chose only projects that he found stimulating. Like his contemporary Max Steiner, he had a weakness for brass-heavy bombast that at times threatened to overpower the images he was scoring; but he had a greater melodic gift, and more convincingly assimilated American idioms into his essentially European musical language. His music for "High Noon" changed the way Hollywood movies were scored. The title ballad he wrote for it with lyricist Ned Washington, "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'," was artfully used as a refrain throughout the action, touching off a theme song craze that eventually led to the pop-oriented soundtracks of today's films. Tiomkin himself contributed to this trend by including songs in most of his subsequent scores. For his last film, the U. S.-Soviet co-production "Tchaikovsky" (1971), he not only adapted the music but directed and produced. He spent his last years in London. His many international awards include being named a Chevalier of France's Legion of Honor. In 1999 the United States Postal Service issued a first-class stamp in Tiomkin's honor.    Burial: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Glendale Los Angeles County California, USA Plot: Great Mausoleum, Columbarium of Memory, Niche 19425