Alfred Newman
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Alfred Newman (March 17, 1900 – February 17, 1970) was a major American composer of music for films. (His birth year is commonly mistakenly given as 1901).
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[edit] Early life
The eldest of ten children, Newman was born in New Haven, Connecticut. A musical prodigy, he began studying piano at the age of five. He was able to supplement his poor family's income by playing in theatres and restaurants. He traveled the vaudeville circuit with performer Grace LaRue, billed as "The Marvelous Boy Pianist". by the age of twenty he was in New York, beginning a ten-year career on Broadway as the conductor of musicals by composers such as George Gershwin, Richard Rogers, and Jerome Kern. Then, in 1930, he accompanied Irving Berlin to Hollywood.[1]
[edit] Movie career
After completing his work on Berlin's project, a movie called Reaching for the Moon, Newman found work with Samuel Goldwyn and United Artists, writing his first full movie score for Goldwyn's 1931 production, Street Scene. The title song he wrote for this movie became a theme to which he returned on several occasions, including the opening of the 1953 movie How to Marry a Millionaire, in which Newman is seen conducting the orchestra.
In 1939, Newman began a twenty-one-year career as music director for 20th Century-Fox Studios. He composed the familiar fanfare which accompanies the studio logo at the beginning of Fox's productions. At Fox, he also developed what came to be known as the Newman System, a means of synchronising the performance and recording of a musical score with the film. The system is still in use today.
He received 45 Academy Award nominations (a record in the music categories, now shared with John Williams), winning 9 times; in 1940 he was nominated for 4 different films. He was active until the end of his life, scoring Airport shortly before his death.
[edit] Newman family
He married Martha Louis née Montgomery (1920-2005), a former actress and Goldwyn Girl, and they had five children.
He was the head of a family of major Hollywood film composers:
- His brother Lionel Newman scored three dozen films and several TV series, adapting and conducting scores for hundreds of other films.
- His brother Emil Newman scored over 50 films.
- His son David Newman has scored over 70 films, including Hoffa, Galaxy Quest, The Nutty Professor (1996 film), The War of the Roses, and Ice Age.
- His son Thomas Newman has scored over 50 films, including Finding Nemo, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, Road to Perdition, and American Beauty.
- His nephew Randy Newman is noted not only for his film work but also for a series of popular albums as a singer/songwriter.
[edit] Partial filmography
Between 1930 and 1970, Alfred Newman wrote music for over 200 films of every imaginable type, including a score for the newsreel made from the World War II footage of the Battle of Midway. In addition, he acted as musical director of dozens of other movies. Among his major film scores (and adaptations of other composers' scores) are:
- 1930 - Whoopee! (musical director)
- 1931 - City Lights (musical director)
- 1931 - Street Scene
- 1933 - State Fair (non-musical version)
- 1937 - You Only Live Once
- 1937 - The Prisoner of Zenda
- 1938 - Alexander's Ragtime Band (Academy Award) (adaptation, the music was by Irving Berlin)
- 1939 - Gunga Din
- 1939 - Wuthering Heights
- 1939 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- 1940 - The Mark of Zorro
- 1940 - Tin Pan Alley (Academy Award) (adaptation)
- 1941 - How Green Was My Valley
- 1943 - The Song of Bernadette (Academy Award)
- 1943 - My Friend Flicka
- 1944 - The Keys of the Kingdom (Academy Award nomination for best musical score)
- 1945 - State Fair (adaptation only; this was the musical version by Rodgers and Hammerstein)
- 1947 - Captain from Castile
- 1947 - Mother Wore Tights (adaptation) (Academy Award)
- 1947 - Gentleman's Agreement
- 1949 - Twelve O'Clock High
- 1950 - All About Eve
- 1952 - The Prisoner of Zenda
- 1952 - The Snows of Kilimanjaro
- 1952 - With a Song in My Heart (adaptation only; this musical contained songs by several composers, but Newman was not one of them) (Academy Award)
- 1953 - How to Marry a Millionaire
- 1953 - The Robe
- 1953 - Call Me Madam (adaptation; the music was by Irving Berlin) (Academy Award)
- 1954 - Demetrius and the Gladiators
- 1955 - A Man Called Peter
- 1955 - Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (Academy Award)
- 1956 - Anastasia
- 1956 - Carousel (adaptation, the songs were by Rodgers and Hammerstein)
- 1956 - The King and I (1956 film) (adaptation; the songs were by Rodgers and Hammerstein) (Academy Award)
- 1957 - April Love (adaptation)
- 1958 - A Certain Smile
- 1959 - The Diary of Anne Frank (Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score)
- 1962 - State Fair (remake of musical version) (adaptation only; the songs were by Rodgers and Hammerstein, with additional songs by Richard Rodgers only)
- 1962 - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- 1962 - How the West Was Won (Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score)
- 1965 - The Greatest Story Ever Told (Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score)
- 1967 - Camelot (adaptation; the songs were by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe) (Academy Award)
- 1968 - Firecreek
- 1970 - Airport
[edit] External links
- Alfred Newman at the Internet Movie Database
- Alfred Newman at Soundtrackguide.net
