Alfred Newman

Alfred Newman (1900-1970) is the head of a musical dynasty (his younger brothers, Emil and Lionel, were both composers, as are his sons David and Thomas, and his nephew Randy) and one of the most important and influential composers ever to wield a baton in Hollywood. His important legacy to the film music industry is almost incalculable.

The eldest of ten children, young Alfred was a musical prodigy, and was giving piano concerts at the age of seven. The money he earned from his recitals funded his continued musical education in New York, where he was taught composition and harmony. His first work was accompanying Grace La Rue in her vaudeville act, which in turn led to further work at the Harlem Opera House and on Broadway.

It was while conducting Gershwin musicals such as Treasure Girl and Funny Face on Broadway in the 1920s that he first encountered movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, who lured him to Hollywood. He scored his first major movie, Street Scene, in 1931, and quickly became the "premier" composer working in film at that time. He was appointed Head of Music at Twentieth Century Fox, and remained there for nearly two decades, during which time he contributed an enormous amount to film music as a composer, arranger, musical director and conductor. His credits as composer alone read like a list of the most influential film scores of all time:

Street Scene (1931)
Arrowsmith (1931)
The Greeks Had a Word for Them (1932)
Rain (1932)
Cynara (1932)
I Cover the Waterfront (1933)
The Bowery (1933)
Roman Scandals (1933)
The House of Rothschild (1934)
Born to Be Bad (1934)
The Affairs of Cellini (1934)
The Count of Monte Cristo (1934)
Clive of India (1935)
Folies Bergère de Paris (1935)
Les misérables (1935)
Cardinal Richelieu (1935)
The Call of the Wild (1935)
Barbary Coast (1935)
These Three (1936)
Dodsworth (1936)
Wee Willie Winkie (1937)
Stella Dallas (1937)
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
Gunga Din (1939)
Wuthering Heights (1939)
John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
Beau Geste (1939)
The Rains Came (1939)
John Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
The Blue Bird (1940)
Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940)
The Mark of Zorro (1940)
Hudson's Bay (1941)
Blood and Sand (1941)
Charley's Aunt (1941)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Ball of Fire (1941)
Roxie Hart (1942)
To the Shores of Tripoli (1942)
Rings on Her Fingers (1942)
The Pied Piper (1942)
Springtime in the Rockies (1942)
Rafael Sabatini's The Black Swan (1942)
My Friend Flicka (1943)
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Wilson (1944)
The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
A Bell for Adano (1945)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
The Razor's Edge (1946)
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Captain from Castile (1947)
Sitting Pretty (1948)
That Lady in Ermine (1948)
The Snake Pit (1948)
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
Prince of Foxes (1949)
Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
The Big Lift (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
David and Bathsheba (1951)
What Price Glory? (1952)
O. Henry's Full House (1952)
The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)
The Robe (1953)
The Egyptian (1954) (with Bernard Herrmann)
A Man Called Peter (1955)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Anastasia (1956)
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
How the West Was Won (1962)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
Nevada Smith (1966)
Firecreek (1968)
Airport (1970) -- His last score

Newman's career encompassed over 250 films, in every conceivable genre, earning him an astonishing 45 Oscar nominations, winning nine times. He composed the music for the Twentieth Century Fox logo, which is still in use today. He also is credited as "discovering" a number of composers, including David Raksin, Bernard Herrmann and John Williams, whose first screen assignments were as a result of his association. Newman retired from scoring immediately after "Airport" was finished, and looked to have a long and happy retirement.

He died aged 69 on February 17, 1970 at his home in Hollywood, of complications from emphysema.

Not to be confused with Alfred E. Neuman.