Jerry Goldsmith, 1929-2004
Jerry Goldsmith, the legendary Oscar-winning composer and conductor, and one of the most influential film music composers of all time, has died in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles, on 21 July 2004, after a long battle with cancer. He was 75.
Born Jerrald Goldsmith on February 10th 1929 in Los Angeles, Jerry studied the piano with Jacob Gimpel and studied film composition at the University of Southern California under the tutelage of the legendary Hungarian composer Miklós Rózsa. Prodigiously talented, young Goldsmith found himself unable to secure a job in music full time so, in order to establish a foothold, he took a job at the American TV studio CBS, initially as a clerk typist, and slowly began to work his way up through the ranks.
Eventually, he was given the opportunity to write for TV, and during the 1950s and 60s wrote for shows such as "Wagon Train", "Have Gun Will Travel", "The Twilight Zone", "Thriller", "Dr. Kildare", and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.". It was his friendship with the legendary Alfred Newman that allowed Goldsmith to score his first feature film in 1957, a little known western called "Black Patch". He never looked back. Over the next 45 years, Goldsmith would go on write some of the most groundbreaking and brilliant film and television music in history. He was a true film music pioneer, blazing a trail in new and innovative compositional techniques, the advent of intelligent use of electronics, and the dramatic use of music as a cinematic language. He wrote music for over 200 films in every conceivable genre, and was nominated for eighteen Oscars (although he only won once, for "The Omen" in 1976), six Golden Globes, and numerous Emmys and other awards.
He wrote some of the most famous and well-loved themes from some of the most successful movies of all time, and includes in his filmography titles such as "Freud" (1962), "Lilies of the Field" (1963), "The Blue Max" (1966), "The Sand Pebbles" (1966), "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "Patton" (1970), "Papillon" (1973), "Chinatown" (1974), "The Wind and the Lion" (1975), "Logan's Run" (1976), "The Omen" (1976), "Alien" (1979), "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979), "Poltergeist" (1982), "First Blood" (1982), "Gremlins" (1984), "Rambo: First Blood Part II" (1985), "Total Recall" (1990), "Sleeping With the Enemy" (1991), "Basic Instinct" (1992), "Rudy" (1993), "First Knight" (1995), "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996), "Air Force One" (1997), "L.A. Confidential" (1997), "Mulan" (1998), "The Mummy" (1999), "The Sum of All Fears" (2002) and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” (2003), his last score. On television, Goldsmith wrote music for a number of successful and popular series, including the memorable main title themes for “The Waltons”, “Room 222”, “Barnaby Jones”, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Voyager”.
He struck up famous partnerships with many eminent directors, the most notable amongst these being Franklin J. Schaffner, Joe Dante, Paul Verhoeven and Fred Schepisi. He was given the honour of writing 'Fanfare for Oscar', the first ever piece of music commissioned by the Academy, and has written concert works including the cantata "Christus Apollo" (1969, with text by Ray Bradbury), "Music for Orchestra" (1972), and "Fireworks", a piece written for the concert stage in 1999.
Goldsmith leaves his wife, Carol, five children (including fellow composer Joel Goldsmith), six grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.
On a personal note, I would like to add that although I only met Goldsmith twice in my life, and although he had a well-deserved reputation for being ‘cantankerous’, his indescribably brilliant talent was never in question. In concert, he was a warm host, a humorous speaker, and a lively and expressive conductor. In person, if he liked you, he was a friendly and generous man. It has been over a decade since a man of Goldsmith’s talent and standing in the film music industry has passed away. It is likely that someone of his brilliance and stature will never come our way again. He will be greatly, greatly missed, not just by the film music community, but by everyone who ever experienced the brilliance of music through the silver screen.
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