Jerry Goldsmith

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Jerry Goldsmith

Birth name:	Jerrald King Goldsmith
Gender:	Male
Date of birth:	10 February 1929
Place of birth:	Pasadena, California
Date of death:	21 July 2004
Place of death:	Beverly Hills, California
Awards for Trek:	1 Emmy; 1 Oscar nomination
Roles:	Composer, conductor

Jerrald ("Jerry") Goldsmith (10 February 1929 – 21 July 2004; age 75) was a film and television composer and conductor who wrote the musical scores for five Star Trek movies and the main title themes for two Star Trek spin-off series. He was nominated for eighteen Academy Awards, winning one, and also won four Emmy Awards. He was also nominated for the 1980 Saturn Award for "Best Music" for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

1 Biography
2 Association with Star Trek
- 2.1 See also
3 Notable works, awards, and honors
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Jerry Goldsmith originally intended to become a concert hall composer, but soon realized that the infrequency of concert hall commissions would never satisfy his hunger to write music (much less pay the bills). He began studying piano at the age of 6, and was studying composition at age 14. He became acquainted with the legendary composer Miklós Rózsa, and attended his classes in film composition at the University of Southern California.

In 1950, he was employed as a clerk typist in the music department at CBS. It was there that he was given his first assignments as a composer for radio shows, such as Romance and CBS Radio Workshop. He would stay with CBS until 1960, having already scored some episodes of The Twilight Zone. He was hired by Revue Studios to score their Thriller series, which lead to further television commissions. He composed his first film score for the 1957 western Black Patch, which featured TOS guest actors Stanley Adams and Peter Brocco.

In 1962, Goldsmith was awarded his first Oscar nomination for his acclaimed score to the poorly-received John Huston picture Freud. At the same time, he became acquainted with influential film composer Alfred Newman, who, recognizing Goldsmith's talents, influenced Universal into hiring him to score the film Lonely Are The Brave in 1963. From then on, Goldsmith established himself as a leading name in American film music.

Jerry Goldsmith died of cancer on 21 July 2004 in Beverly Hills, California. He was 75 years old.

[edit] Association with Star Trek

In 1979, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry offered Goldsmith Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the composer leaped at the opportunity. Here, Goldsmith was tasked with re-inventing a franchise and creating a brand new theme. Goldsmith himself remarked it was the toughest he ever wrote, and it remains a remarkable achievement. The Motion Picture also marked the second time Goldsmith worked with director Robert Wise; Goldsmith previously scored The Sand Pebbles for Wise in 1966.

Beyond creating a new theme, Goldsmith also created new kinds of soundscapes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, through the inventive use of unusual instruments, such as the "Blaster Beam". At the behest of Roddenberry, it was later adapted to become the signature theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Some initial music Goldsmith composed for The Motion Picture differed from the final product, particularly the fanfare written for the scene in which the refit Enterprise is revealed. The original score did not meet with Robert Wise's satisfaction and Goldsmith was asked to do the score over again. According to Goldsmith, Wise was displeased with the score because "there's no [Star Trek] theme." Although Goldsmith was "crushed", he came up with a revised score which did meet with Wise's approval that same night. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture (The Director's Edition) Special Features - A Bold New Enterprise)

Goldsmith's score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture earned him the eleventh of his eighteen Oscar nominations in the category of Best Music, Original Score. The score also earned him nominations from the Golden Globes and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.

Goldsmith's association with Star Trek might have occurred much earlier, as Gene Roddenberry originally wanted the composer to score the first Star Trek pilot, "The Cage", but Goldsmith was committed to other projects at the time.

During the 1980s and '90s, Goldsmith's orchestra often included tuba player Tommy Johnson, best known for the ominous theme music from Jaws. Goldsmith and Johnson collaborated together on all of Goldsmith's Trek productions, with the exception of Nemesis, as well as such films as Executive Decision, Air Force One, and Mulan.

In 1989, Goldsmith scored Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and in 1994, he wrote the main title theme for Star Trek: Voyager, for which he won an Emmy Award. Listen^file info He later composed the scores for Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection.

By the early 2000s, Goldsmith's health prevented him from working as much as he once did. He did, however, finish his work on the franchise with Star Trek Nemesis. This film also marked his third collaboration with British director Stuart Baird after 1996's Executive Decision and 1998's U.S. Marshals. Nemesis marked their fifth collaboration in general, as Goldsmith composed two previous films on which Baird served as editor: 1976's The Omen and 1981's Outland.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notable works, awards, and honors

Goldsmith won his only Academy Award for scoring the 1976 horror movie The Omen. He was also nominated for writing a song from that film called "Ave Satani". He had previously been nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work in the acclaimed films A Patch of Blue, The Sand Pebbles, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillon, Chinatown, and The Wind and the Lion. He went on to earn nominations for scoring the films The Boys from Brazil, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Poltergeist, Under Fire, Hoosiers, Basic Instinct, and the critically acclaimed thriller L.A. Confidential. His last nomination came for his work in the animated Disney film Mulan.

Goldsmith was additionally nominated for four Emmy Awards, winning all of them. Aside from the theme to Star Trek: Voyager (see below), he also won Emmys for scoring the 1974 mini-series QB VIII, the 1975 TV movie Babe, and the 1981 mini-series Masada. His other television scoring credits include episodes of Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, and Perry Mason, multiple episodes of The Twilight Zone and Thriller, and the opening themes for Dr. Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Waltons, and Barnaby Jones.

Action epics such as Alien (for which he received a Golden Globe nomination), the Rambo films, Total Recall, Air Force One, and The Mummy were scored by Goldsmith. Other films he scored include Seven Days in May (for which he was also nominated for a Golden Globe), Our Man Flint, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Logan's Run, The Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Russia House, Six Degrees of Separation, Congo, Hollow Man, and The Sum of All Fears.

Goldsmith composed the soundtrack of numerous films for director Joe Dante: Gremlins (for which he won a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films), Explorers, InnerSpace, The 'burbs, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Matinee, Small Soldiers, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. With the exception of the first Gremlins, all of these films featured Voyager star Robert Picardo in the cast.

In addition to his Oscar and Emmy achievements, Goldsmith has received nine Golden Globe nominations, five Grammy Award nominations, five nominations from the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards, and 17 Saturn Award nominations (winning one). In 1999, he received a Hollywood Film Award in Outstanding Achievement in Music in Film from the Hollywood Film Festival. He also won an Annie Award for his work on Mulan, received a Golden Palm nomination from the Canne Film Festival (for Basic Instinct), received a Golden Satellite Award nomination (for L.A. Confidential), and won 14 BMI Film Music Awards, among several other honors.