Composer's Details

Name:
Jerry Goldsmith
Born:
10.2. 1929
Died:
21.7. 2004

Biography

The Academy Award-winning American film score composer Jerrald King "Jerry" Goldsmith was born on 10th February, 1929 in Los Angeles, California. His arena of work has spread over a wide variety of television and film genres including suspense, action, erotic thrillers, family comedies, comic book adaptations, animated features, westerns and sci-fi/horror movies.

Jerry Goldsmith was born to artist Tessa and structural engineer Morris Goldsmith. He began playing piano at the age of 6 and when he was 14 years old , Jacob Gimpel and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco taught him music composition, theory and counterpoint. Jerry Goldsmith studied from the University of Southern California, where he was inspired by his veteran composer teacher Miklós Rózsa for writing film scores.

In 1950, Jerry Goldsmith began working at CBS and wrote scores both for CBS Radio and CBS television shows. He continued his work at CBS till 1960 and then joined Revue Studios to compose music for TV shows including Dr. Kildare & The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

In 1963, Jerry Goldsmith received his first Oscar nomination for John Huston's movie Freud. After that Jerry Goldsmith collaborated with numerous filmmakers throughout his musical career, including Robert Wise, Howard Hawks, Otto Preminger, Roman Polanski, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Franklin Schaffner.Jerry Goldsmith ?s distinguished film scores included Freud, A Patch of Blue, The Sand Pebbles, The Blue Max, Patton, Planet of the Apes, Papillon, The Omen, Chinatown, The Wind and the Lion, The Boys from Brazil, Islands in the Stream, Capricorn One, The First Great Train Robbery, Alien, Logan's Run, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Lionheart, First Blood, The Russia House, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Total Recall, Rambo III, Medicine Man, Basic Instinct, The Edge, Hoosiers, The 13th Warrior & The Mummy.Jerry Goldsmith is most often remembered for his film scores for 5 Star Trek films that included Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection & Star Trek Nemesis.Jerry Goldsmith 's final theatrical score was heard in the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action which was a live action animated movie released in 2003.

Jerry Goldsmith received 18 nominations for an Academy Award but finally got one for his terrifying and violent choral/orchestral score in 1976 movie The Omen. The Omen also bagged him with a Grammy Award. Jerry Goldsmith has also received Golden Globes for the 1965 movie Seven Days in May, 1967 movie The Sand Pebbles, 1975 film Chinatown, 1980 sci-fi film Star Trek:The Motion Picture, 1980 film Alien, 1984 movie Under Fire, 1993 film Basic Instinct, 1998 film L.A. Confidential and 1999 film Mulan. He also received Emmys for his television scores of QB VII and Masada, as well as for the theme of Star Trek: Voyager. Jerry Goldsmith too composed for The Waltons TV series and the score for Soarin' Over California which is one among the most popular attraction of the Disneyland Resort.

Jerry Goldsmith loved innovations and adaptations, and he used strange instruments. Jerry Goldsmith has recorded various scores in London and has also conducted numerous music concerts there.